North Korea blames US for breakdown of nuclear project
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-17 08:43

North Korea said Monday that the U.S. should take full responsibility for the breakdown of a project to build a nuclear power plant in the country and that Washington should pay compensation for economic losses.

The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper made the statement in the country's first reaction since last week's complete pullout of South Korean and U.S. personnel from the plant's construction site in North Korea.

The staff withdrawal on January 8 marked the end of the decade-old project to build two power-generating, light-water reactors in North Korea in return for its promise to freeze its nuclear development under a 1994 deal with the U.S.

A U.S.-led international consortium in charge of the project decided in November to terminate it. The construction had been on hold for several years after Washington accused the North of running a secret nuclear program in violation of the deal.

"The (George W.) Bush administration carried out the act of discarding the official document between North Korea and the U.S. in a planned and systematic manner," the North Korean newspaper said in a commentary carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

"The U.S. inflicted enormous political and economic losses upon us by completely stopping the construction of light-water reactors. ... We have a legitimate right to seek compensation for that," it said.

The project was about 35 percent complete when halted in 2003. About US$1.5 billion was spent on the US$4.6 billion reactor project, which was funded mainly by South Korea and Japan.

North Korea protested the consortium's decision to pull out and has demanded unspecified compensation from the U.S.

Pyongyang has barred the removal of 93 pieces of heavy construction equipment and about 190 South Korean cars and some buses from the site, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the South Korean border.

Since 2003, the U.S. and the North have participated in negotiations with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia to try to resolve the crisis over the North's nuclear ambitions.

North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear program in September in exchange for aid and security assurances. But follow-up talks have stalled as the North put forward new conditions for disarming that Washington says are unacceptable _ including a demand for a light-water reactor.

The latest talks recessed in November. The participants agreed to meet again but did not set a date.