N.Korea says to build light-water nuclear reactors

Reuters/Jon Herskovitz | December 20 2005

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday it plans to build light-water atomic reactors and develop two other reactors that can produce large amounts of fissile material to boost its nuclear deterrent.

The official KCNA news agency blamed the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush for the decision, made during a hold up in six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

It could complicate an already difficult diplomatic process further, analysts said.

Pyongyang had not said before it planned to build relatively proliferation resistant light-water reactors (LWRs) but had threatened to resume work on two graphite-moderated reactors (GMRs), which can produce large amounts of material for atomic bombs, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.

"There have never been any plans for North Korea to build LWRs on their own," the official said.

KCNA repeated the North's demand for compensation for an international consortium's decision to pull the plug on a long-stalled deal to provide it with two light-water reactors in exchange for it freezing its nuclear weapons programs.

The countries in the consortium -- known as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO -- said the project was shut down because the North had cheated on the original 1994 deal by having a secret uranium enrichment plan.

Pyongyang denied having such a project.

"The Bush administration's abandonment of its commitment to provide LWRs to the DPRK compels it to develop in real earnest its independent nuclear power industry based on 50,000 kilowatt and 200,000 KW GMRs and their related facilities," KCNA said.

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

KCNA said North Korea would "start developing and building LWRs of Korean style in reliance upon its indigenous technology and potential when an appropriate time comes to put further spurs to its peaceful nuclear activities". It did not elaborate.

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