North Korea: Regime preparing to restart nuclear facility

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A North Korean diplomat says the communist regime is undertaking "thorough preparations" to restart its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon. Hyun Hak Bong told reporters at the border on Friday that North Korea stopped disabling the Yongbyon complex as previously agreed because the US has not kept its end of a disarmament-for-aid deal. He said North Korea was "making thorough preparations to restart" the Yongbyon facility. He did not say when Yongbyon would be running again. Hyun spoke before the start of talks with South Korean officials at the border village of Panmunjom on sending energy aid to the impoverished North amid a deadlock in the six-party disarmament talks.