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Seoul: South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator urged North Korea on Wednesday to stick to its pledge to give up its atomic ambitions, as Pyongyang resumed a stalled disarmament process following a breakthrough deal with the United States.
"North Korea, which has been accused of repeatedly backing out of promises or demanding more than what it should get, can prove its denuclearization commitment only with actions, not with words," envoy Kim Sook said in an article contributed to the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
The appeal came as Pyongyang resumed steps to disable its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, ending a two-month boycott of a landmark disarmament deal after the United States removed the communist regime from a terrorism blacklist as a reward.
On Tuesday, the North allowed UN monitors back onto the nuclear site. A diplomat in Vienna familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency's work at the site said the agency's 3-member team had resumed monitoring the site Tuesday, including reapplying seals the North had ordered taken off and remounting IAEA cameras.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the North had begun taking steps to finish disabling the Yongbyon nuclear complex, north of Pyongyang, under a six-nation disarmament accord reached last year.
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Two months ago, North Korea stopped disabling the Yongbyon nuclear facility in anger over US demands that Pyongyang accept a plan to verify its accounting of nuclear programs as a condition for removal from the terrorism list.
Until late last week, the North had threatened to reactivate the plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon before a compromise was reached with the US.
Washington announced North Korea's removal from the terrorism sponsors' list Saturday, saying Pyongyang had agreed to all its nuclear inspection demands.
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