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DPRK suspends disablement of nuclear facilities

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-26 21:43

PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced on Tuesday it has halted disabling nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Related readings:  US holds substantive talks with North Korea  DPRK destroys nuclea cooling tower  Bush offers North Korea peace treaty if disarms  IAEA: North Korea has shut reactor

The DPRK will "consider soon a step to restore the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to their original state," the KCNA quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

The measure, a reaction to the impasse of the six-party nuclear talks, took effect on Aug. 14, he said.

The United States and the DPRK can't agree on ways to verify the nuclear declaration that the DPRK submitted in June as part of a six-nation disarmament deal.

The United States has said it will wait until a verification mechanism is in place before it considers taking the DPRK off its terrorism blacklist.

The DPRK spokesman rejected the verifying measures as short-noticed on-site inspection, saying that "the US is gravely mistaken if it thinks it can make a house search in the DPRK as it pleases just as it did in Iraq."