South Korea is proposing to use North Korean nuclear fuel rods, to be removed from a reactor under a six-nation disarmament deal, for South Korean power plants, a news report said yesterday.
Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed government source as saying negotiators should decide how to dispose of the nuclear fuel that will be removed as part of the full dismantling of the North's nuclear facilities under the deal.
"Bringing the North Korean fuel rods into the South is one of the options now under consideration," the government source was quoted as saying, adding that Seoul first needs to make sure that the North's fuel can be used by the South's nuclear power plants.
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
Twenty nuclear power plants are operating in South Korea, meeting about 40 percent of the country's need for electricity, government data show.
But the source did not clarify Seoul's position on what to do with weapons-grade plutonium -- a key source for making atomic bombs -- that the North has supposedly extracted from the spent fuel rods.
Seoul's top nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said on Friday that the US-led disabling of North Korea's nuclear site was proceeding smoothly, with thousands of spent fuel rods expected to be relocated from a five-megawatt reactor to a cooling pond starting next year.
"Most of the disabling work, except for the removal of the nuclear fuel rods from the reactor, is expected to be completed this year," Chun said. "A lot of preparation is needed to take the fuel rods out."
The North staged a nuclear test in October last year despite international warnings, but agreed in February to a disarmament deal under the landmark six-nation nuclear talks.
Under the accord endorsed by the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan, the North began disabling three of its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon under supervision by US inspectors last month.
DISARMAMENT DEAL
As part of the deal, the North should disable the Yongbyon plants and declare a full list of its nuclear program by year-end in return for 1 million tonnes of oil or equivalent energy aid.
If the North keeps up its end of the deal, the US has agreed to move towards removing the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and to normalize diplomatic ties.
North Korea said on Friday it would keep its commitment to disabling the plants by year-end as long as its partners kept their promises.
Top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said on Friday in Seoul that he hoped North Korea would be nuclear-free by next year, but added that the country must give up all its atomic material.
Hill plans today to fly to North Korea to inspect work under way at its Yongbyon complex to disable three plutonium-producing nuclear plants.
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