 DPRK demolishes nuclear cooling tower
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-28 07:20
YONGBYON: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) destroyed a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility on Friday, after the United States said it will remove the country from its terrorism blacklist. Explosives were used to fell the 20-m concrete tower, which was a clear symbol of the DPRK's nuclear scheme, at around 5 pm local time, television footage showed. Five media organizations, including China Central Television, from countries involved in the Six-Party Talks were invited to witness and report the event. The blast came a day after the DPRK submitted a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear program to China, the chair of the Six-Party Talks. "This is a very important and significant step," Sung Kim, director of the US state department's Korea office, who attended the blast, said in a TV interview. Sung will probably meet with DPRK officials during his visit and discuss the remaining steps the state must take to disable its nuclear programs, the US state department's Tim Casey said on Thursday. He will also discuss "some ideas on verification" of the dossier handed over on Thursday. Although the explosion of the cooling tower was more symbolic than substantial, it is a "smart move" by the DPRK, a Chinese analyst said on Friday. The blast not only shows the world Pyongyang is willing to scrap its nuclear scheme but also facilitates its claim for Washington's compensation for the move, Jin Linbo, a researcher with the Beijing-based China Institution of International Studies, said. Pyongyang's demand of compensation for the blast is also acceptable to the United States, as the symbolic explosion is likely to be seen at home as a "diplomatic victory" for the Bush administration, Jin said. US President Bush cautiously welcomed the declaration on Thursday. He said the US will act to remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 45 days, as well as lift sanctions under its Trading with the Enemy Act. While the DPRK's declaration does not specify how many weapons have been produced, it has quantified how much plutonium was generated at Yongbyon, Bush's national security advisor Stephen Hadley said. "What they do in the declaration is say how many kilograms of plutonium their activities to date have produced," Hadley said at a briefing on Thursday. "We want to verify the accuracy of that number, and the North Koreans have made it very clear they will give us access to the facilities, documents and persons that will hopefully allow us to do that." The dossier totaled 60 pages, a US state department official told reporters in Kyoto, where Condoleezza Rice met with foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrial powers. Chinese officials distributed copies to the other members of the six-party forum, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Kyoto. The Six-Party Talks will probably be held early next month, the Republic of Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan told reporters in Seoul earlier on Friday. China Daily - Agencies (China Daily 06/28/2008 page1) |
