Sunday, December 22, 2002
North Korea blocks monitoring of nuclear reactor: IAEA
Agence France-Presse Vienna, December 22
North Korea broke seals on equipment and blocked surveillance cameras on Saturday at a nuclear reactor shut down as part a 1994 accord, after saying it would restart the plant, the IAEA said.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohammed ElBaradei expressed "deep regret" at the Stalinist state's move, in a statement published at the United Nations nuclear body's headquarters in Vienna on Saturday.
In a letter to Ri Je Son, head of the North Korea's atomic energy department, ElBaradei called on the country for restraint, and urged it not to take any further action which would prevent the IAEA monitoring the reactor.
Earlier this month North Korea asked the IAEA to remove seals and surveillance cameras from its nuclear facilities, after announcing it planned to restart its nuclear programme, saying it needed it for power. The programme, including the reactor at Nyongbyong where the seals were cut and cameras stopped from working Saturday, was frozen in 1994 as part of the US-North Korean Agreed Framework.
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