NORTH KOREA:North Korea says that it will start moves to shut its nuclear reactor within a day of receiving millions of dollars blocked for 18 months in a Macau bank, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson said yesterday.
But Mr Richardson, speaking in Seoul after a trip to the North, said that it could be some 30 days before the reactor began shutting down and that it would require an "extraordinary effort" to meet Saturday's deadline under a February deal with regional powers to actually begin decommissioning the reactor.
"The North Korean government told us that with that (bank) issue resolved . . . [ it] would move promptly, within a day, after receiving the funds," said Mr Richardson, who during his visit had met Pyongyang's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan. "And therefore within that day [ North Korea] will invite the International Atomic Energy Agency to Pyongyang and inspectors to draw up the terms for shutting down the Yongbyon reactor."
The return of IAEA inspectors, expelled from North Korea in 2002, is part of the February 13th deal to give the impoverished state massive energy aid in return for ending its nuclear weapons programme, starting with closure of the Yongbyon reactor.
"In an offhanded way, a DPRK (North Korean) official mentioned that perhaps 30 additional days would be needed because of the current delay prompted by the blocked funds issue," Mr Richardson said.
In Washington, state department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the US and other participants in the talks on North Korea would "see where they were" on Saturday. - ( Reuters)