Nuclear envoys to gather over North Korea impasse

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Top nuclear envoys from South Korea, the United States and Japan were to converge in Beijing on Friday to discuss the worsening impasse over North Korea's nuclear programs as Pyongyang took steps seen as reversing its promised disarmament. The North began moving disassembled parts of its main nuclear reactor back to the plutonium-producing facility this week, putting into action a threat it would restore atomic facilities that had been partially disabled under a disarmament pact, South Korea said Wednesday. Pyongyang says that the United States has not held up its end of their disarmament deal - a promise to remove North Korea from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. Washington says it will take the North off the list only after it complies with a disarmament requirement. On Friday, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Sook, headed to Beijing for talks.