NKorea will restart nuclear reactor: official

North Korea, accusing Washington of breaking a nuclear disarmament deal, said Friday it is working to restart its atomic reactor and no longer wishes to be taken off a U.S. terrorism blacklist.

The North said it had begun work to restore its Soviet-era nuclear Yongbyon plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium which was being taken apart under a disarmament-for-aid deal it reached with five regional powers, including the United States.

"Restoration under way"

"We are making thorough preparations to restore (nuclear facilities)," said foreign ministry official Hyon Hak-Bong.

The foreign ministry in Pyongyang said later that work has been under way "since some time ago" to restore the plutonium-producing reactor in response to the U.S. failure to drop the North from a terrorism blacklist.

"Now that the U.S. true colors are brought to light, the DPRK (North Korea) neither wishes to be delisted as a 'state sponsor of terrorism' nor expects such a thing to happen," a ministry spokesman told the official news agency.

Analysts have said the North might be trying to pressure the outgoing Bush administration as it looks for diplomatic successes to bolster its legacy. The North might also be thinking it can wait for a new U.S. president to try to get a better deal.

Washington has said it will remove Pyongyang from the list once the state allows inspectors to verify claims it made about its nuclear arms production. Once removed, the North can better tap into international finance and expand its meagre trade.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said in early September that North Korean informed regional powers and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it had started work to restore its ageing nuclear plant.

On Friday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by its KCNA news agency: "... work has been under way to restore its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to their original state".
Proliferation experts have said that trade sanctions placed on North Korea make it difficult for it to acquire the parts it needs to restart Yongbyon, where some of the facilities might be beyond repair because of their age.

Friday's announcement came after U.S. and South Korean officials said last week that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may have suffered a stroke, which raised questions about succession in Asia's only communist dynasty and who controls its nuclear arsenal.

A finger-wagging North Korean nuclear negotiator dismissed as malicious gossip the reports about Kim.