NORTH KOREA: North Korea upped the ante in its negotiations with the United States by declaring for the first time it has processed spent fuel rods, a sign that it may indeed join the next round of six-country talks in Beijing next month, writes Jasper Becker in Seoul.
Remarks by North Korea's Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon, carried by China's Xinhua news agency from a briefing given in New York, are designed to put pressure on the US to offer concessions out of a fear that otherwise North Korea will step up its nuclear bomb-making programme.
North Korea is thought to have several bombs already, but it could make up to 20 more by using the plutonium extracted from the 8,000 spent fuel rods taken from a 5 Megawatt nuclear reactor.
Under the 1994 agreed framework signed with the Clinton administration, North Korea had agreed to suspend the programme and keep the rods under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Authority.
A year ago North Korea, frustrated by Washington's refusal to give into its demands, expelled the IAEA inspectors, broke the seals and said it was leaving the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It also admitted to a second and secret programme to produce nuclear bomb materials by enriching uranium.
To weaken any adverse international reaction, Mr Choe avoided saying the plutonium would be used to make bombs, only that his country would "change the purpose of these fuel rods". A foreign ministry statement added that the fuel rods would be processed "without delay when we deem it necessary".
Mr Choe was also careful to state North Korea would not export its nuclear capabilities.
In recent weeks North Korea has blown hot and cold about whether or not it would agree to join the second round of six-party talks, which it said served no purpose. In the past, Pyongyang has invariably demanded hefty quantities of aid as a precondition for agreeing to take part in talks with the US or South Korea.
This time no such inducements are on the table. These talks are being brokered by China to please Washington, which wants other major powers to take part in an exercise to put pressure on North Korea to stick to its earlier commitments.
Only then will it consider offering fresh incentives for co-operation.
After the invasion of Iraq, Beijing became so alarmed by US threats to launch a pre-emptive strike against the North's nuclear facilities that it has steadily ratcheted up the pressure on its ally Kim Jong Il to become more compliant.
A month ago China even sent 100,000 troops to the border with North Korea. Although China said this was a normal troop movement aimed at curbing the flood of refugees, Beijing is increasingly exasperated with President Kim whom it accuses of having broken commitments to keep the peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
North Korean exiles based in Seoul also report rumours that the North has despatched troops to the border to block any Chinese incursion.
Although China is North Korea's most important patron, bilateral relations have been strained for many years.