- (AFP) -- North Korea threatened to seize an international
consortium's assets on its soil if the US-led group suspends a nuclear
power project in the communist state without compensation.
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- The North's foreign ministry spokesman told the state-run
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that the consortium, the Korean Peninsula
Energy Development Organization, would be banned from taking out equipment,
facilities, material and technical documents from the communist country.
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- The consortium set up by the United States and its allies
is in charge of building a nuclear power plant for energy-starved North
Korea.
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- But the multi-billion dollar energy project may be halted
after the consortium met in New York this week for talks on suspending
work amid lingering tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.
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- After a two-day meeting, the consortium said Tuesday
it would announce a decision on the fate of the project no later than November
21.
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- Late Thursday, the North Korean spokesman denounced the
United States and the consortium for delaying work in building two light-water
nuclear reactors (LWR) and demanded compensation for the delays.
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- "The DPRK (North Korea) will hold them accountable
for this to the last," the spokesman said in an interview with KCNA's
English service monitored here.
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- "It will never allow them to take out all the equipment,
facilities, materials and technical documents now in Kumho area for the
LWR construction till this issue is settled."
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- He said the alleged suspension of the 4.6 billion dollar
project was "nothing surprising" to North Korea, adding that
Pyongyang had already foreseen such a development.
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- But he said "Washington is so getting on the nerves
of the DPRK" ahead of the resuming of the six-nation talks aimed at
ending the year-long crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
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- Diplomatic efforts have been underway to open the second
round of the six-nation nuclear crisis talks which involves two Koreas,
the United States, Russia, Japan and China by year-end.
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- The United States, Japan, South Korea and the European
Union formed the international consortium to oversee the project to build
two safe reactors for North Korea under a now defunct US-North Korean pact.
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- Washington has been leading the drive for a halt to the
project, with some officials saying it should be abandoned for good.
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- South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan said Wednesday
Seoul opposed US-led calls to scrap the project and wanted a one-year suspension
instead.
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- The project, which has proceeded well behind schedule,
was mandated under the 1994 US-North Korea Agreed Framework, which Washington
considers was broken by Pyongyang's renewed attempts to develop nuclear
weapons.
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- Under the deal North Korea froze a plutonium processing
facility in return for regular heavy fuel shipments from the United States.
South Korea and Japan were to pay for the bulk of the reactor construction.
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- The US government cut the fuel shipments to North Korea
late last year and withheld funds for the consortium.
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- The project to build two 1,000-megawatt light-water nuclear
reactors was originally scheduled for completion this year. Less than half
the work has been completed, according to Seoul officials.
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