North Korea may lose out on energy aid if it continues restoring its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
“If North Korea continues its restoration activities, the economic and energy aid in line with disablement will have to be affected,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters in Seoul.
Work to restore the Yongbyon plant, the source of the regime’s weapons-grade plutonium, has “in effect begun,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry envoy Hyun Hak-bong said last week at a meeting with South Korean government officials in Panmunjom, a village in the demilitarized zone between the countries.
PHOTO: AP
Six-nation talks, which also involve the US, China, Japan and Russia, stalled last month when North Korea stopped disabling Yongbyon to protest delays in being removed from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism. North Korea has agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program in return for fuel aid and normalized relations with the US and Japan.
“Our government and other members of the six-nation talks are monitoring the restoration work and consulting on the economic and energy aid provisions,” Moon said. “So far, nothing has been decided on a possible aid halt.”
The Bush administration said North Korea, which signed the disarmament accord last year, would stay on the terrorism blacklist until a mechanism was in place to verify the extent of its nuclear program.
Meanwhile, South Korea yesterday opened more land near its heavily fortified border with North Korea for civilian property development in spite of ongoing cross-border tensions.
The defense ministry in Seoul said the 15km-wide restricted area, which was south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the border, has been reduced to 10km.
It said in a statement that the move, which took effect yesterday, aimed to help people to exercise their property rights and to ease inconvenience for residents.
The new rules would not affect military operations and would better meet demand for more houses and factories, it said.
People living inside the restricted area have complained about limits on construction imposed for security reasons, such as not being allowed to construct new buildings or renovate their homes.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended only in an armistice. Despite its official name, the 4km-wide DMZ is heavily fortified with minefields, barbed wire and tank traps.
Including the restricted area next to the DMZ, the ministry yesterday lifted curbs on a total of 21,200 hectares of land near army bases or other military facilities.
The move was in line with moves by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s government to build more homes and factories. It also wants to ease restrictions on the development of “green belt” areas around cities.
Environmentalists have protested the policy and criticized the defense ministry moves to ease rules on restricted military areas, which often overlap the “green belt” regions.
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