North Korea nuclear seals removed
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- riffhard98
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The UN's atomic watchdog says it has removed seals and surveillance cameras from North Korea's main nuclear complex at Pyongyang's request.
North Korea says the move is part of a plan to reactivate the Yongbyon plant, and that it plans to return nuclear material to the site next week.
The move comes amid a dispute over an international disarmament-for-aid deal.
A similar step in 2002 sparked a crisis which eventually resulted in Pyongyang testing a nuclear weapon in 2006.
The removal of seals and cameras "was completed today" at the site, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant, she added.
Pyongyang began dismantling the reactor, which can be used to make weapons-grade plutonium, last November.
However, on Friday it announced that it was working to reactivate it.
North Korea was expecting to be removed from the US terror list after submitting a long-delayed account of its nuclear facilities to the international talks in June, in accordance with the disarmament deal it signed in 2007.
It also blew up the main cooling tower at Yongbyon in a symbolic gesture of its commitment to the process.
However, the US said it would not remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism until procedures by which the North's disarmament would be verified were established.
The North has been locked in discussions for years over its nuclear ambitions with five other nations - South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty.
North Korea says the move is part of a plan to reactivate the Yongbyon plant, and that it plans to return nuclear material to the site next week.
The move comes amid a dispute over an international disarmament-for-aid deal.
A similar step in 2002 sparked a crisis which eventually resulted in Pyongyang testing a nuclear weapon in 2006.
The removal of seals and cameras "was completed today" at the site, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant, she added.
Pyongyang began dismantling the reactor, which can be used to make weapons-grade plutonium, last November.
However, on Friday it announced that it was working to reactivate it.
North Korea was expecting to be removed from the US terror list after submitting a long-delayed account of its nuclear facilities to the international talks in June, in accordance with the disarmament deal it signed in 2007.
It also blew up the main cooling tower at Yongbyon in a symbolic gesture of its commitment to the process.
However, the US said it would not remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism until procedures by which the North's disarmament would be verified were established.
The North has been locked in discussions for years over its nuclear ambitions with five other nations - South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty.
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