North Korea to Show Off Cooling Tower Explosion

Following its declaration of nuclear programs yesterday, North Korea will blow up its cooling tower attached to the 5-megawatt nuclear reactor in Yongbyon today.

The reactor in Yongbyon symbolizes the nuclear issue of North Korea. So far, the U.S. intelligence satellite has determined whether North Korea runs its nuclear facilities by detecting the steam sent from the 20-meter-high cooling tower made of concrete. Against this backdrop, the explosion of the cooling tower will catapult the six-party talks aimed at denuclearization of North Korea into the third stage of nuclear disarmament.

North Korea’s reactor system in Yongbyon has been almost disabled. In other words, the cooling tower is no more than a lump of concrete. North Korea’s explosion of the cooling tower carries only limited significance in that it does not guarantee the sincerity of North Korea’s denuclearization.

It seems that North Korea announced to blow up the tower in order to let the world know its will of nuclear disarmament. The explosion, therefore, is a symbolic event designed to improve the global confidence in the communist state.

North Korea invited broadcasters of each member state of the multilateral talks, such as CNN of the United States and CCTV of China. It will allow the media to carry the explosion live. In order to maximize the effect of the explosion, North Korea reportedly planned to blow up the cooling tower within 24 hours of its nuclear declaration and the U.S. announcement to remove North Korea from the list of terrorism supporting countries.

Given the principle of “action for action,” its explosion is also designed to express that North Korea welcomes the U.S. step to remove the country from the terrorism sponsor list.

In the United States, many experts believe that North Korea’s explosion of the cooling tower will contribute to settling hawkish U.S. representatives since it is a visible sign that the Bush administration has made some achievement. Kim Sung of the State Department’s Office of Korean Affairs, who entered North Korea through the truce village of Panmunjeom yesterday, will reportedly watch the explosion event.

jin0619@donga.com