by Keith Richmond
UNITED NATIONS inspectors have left North Korea after Pyongyang expelled them and announced plans to resume the production of weapons-grade plutonium, the material used by the country in its first – and so far only – nuclear test blast in 2006. Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency removed seals and surveillance cameras from the nuclear plant at Yongbyon before leaving.
North Korea expelled the inspectors after the UN Security Council condemned the communist country’s launch of a satellite on April 5 as a violation of resolutions banning North Korea from ballistic missile related activities.
Nuclear observers in the West – especially Japan and the US – fear the launch is an indication that North Korea is determined to develop the technology to manufacture long-range nuclear missiles.
Despite Pyongyang’s actions, China has insisted that six-party disarmament talks involving North and South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the US, remain the way to defuse potential problems over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Beijing is still acting as if North Korea had not dismissed the talks as “useless” and announced it would never return to the negotiating table.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu repeated her government’s call for calm and said a “consensus” still exists among the negotiating powers. “We hope that all sides will exercise calm and restraint and be far-sighted in paying attention to the big picture, together striving to advance the six-party talks process.”
China’s approach appears aimed at coaxing Pyongyang back to the negotiations.
