DPRK seeks to build reactor by 2012

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) claims to be building an experimental light-water nuclear reactor for completion by 2012, says a United States expert who visited the state this month.

Jack Pritchard, president of the Korea Economic Institute, told journalists in Washington on Tuesday that he had visited the Yongbyon nuclear complex where the DPRK claims the light-water reactor is being built.

Siegfried Hecker, a US scientist who accompanied Pritchard, has also reported the claims.