North Korea Forbids KEDO to Take Materials Out of Reactor Construction Site

As the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) decided to suspend building light-water reactors, North Korea claimed damages caused by the halting of the construction project and did not allow KEDO to take equipments and materials out of the construction site, reported the Mainichi Daily News quoting a U.S. source.

North Korea`s atomic energy bureau chief, Choi Chul-Su, discussed this to Charles Kartman, executive director of KEDO, when Kartman visited North Korea on November 17 to explain to the communist officials about the plan to suspend the energy project, reported Mainichi.

Some 500 managers and engineers, including South Koreans, are deployed to the Kumho area, the construction site.

KEDO was planning to withdraw the workforce and instruments, leaving only 100 maintenance and management workforce remaining, after it finishes the preparation for the suspension for one year.

Mainichi said that “since North Korea is considered to have come up with such measures as a bargaining chip to threaten the U.S., the suspension will have a negative impact on the upcoming six-way talks.”

parkwj@donga.com