[imText1]With 13 days remaining, North Korea has to disable its Yongbyon nuclear facility and declare nuclear programs by December 31st. <\/p>\n
The project to move Yongbyon nuclear reactor\u2019s fuel rods to the nearby a cistern for disablement was introduced in the latter half of last week and it will take approximately 100 days for the project to be completed, reported Kyodo New Service. <\/p>\n
Nuclear fuel rods amounting to around 8,000 weigh 50 tons total, so it will be difficult to finish the project before March. However, once the project is completed, recharging the reactor will be technologically difficult. Therefore, this can be evaluated as an epochal stage in the disablement process. <\/p>\n
The forecast for the delay in the completion of disablement was reiterated by China\u2019s top representative Wu Dawei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the Six-Party talks on the 6th of this month, \u201cDue to technical issues, it will be difficult for North Korea\u2019s nuclear disablement to be completed by the end of the year.\u201d <\/p>\n
Further, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has said that the U.S. is not concerned about whether or not disablement will be completed by December 31st. Due to essential technical issues, the U.S. cannot rush the process.<\/p>\n
Thus, the U.S. has already widened the breadth of understanding regarding the possibility of the postponement in deadline regarding one or two projects as long as disablement has begun. <\/p>\n
President Bush already sent an autographed letter, the first letter he has sent to Kim Jong Il, requesting the North\u2019s reporting of good faith within the end of the year. <\/p>\n
That is, if North Korea accurately declares the amount of abstracted plutonium and suspicions about the Uranium Enrichment Program (UEP), which turned into a second-round nuclear threat in 2002, as well as the presumed nuclear connection with Syria, the removal of North Korea from the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, the termination of the application of Trading with the Enemy Act, regime safety, and economic support can be ensured. <\/p>\n
North Korea has adhered to the position of \u201cgroundless rumors\u201d regarding suspicions of its nuclear expansion and the UEP issue, which were previously introduced. <\/p>\n
However, it was expressed that North Korea imported high-level aluminum pipes reaching about 150 tons through a former Russian businessman and Pakistan\u2019s President Pervez Musharraf also revealed in last year\u2019s autobiography that he handed over \u201c20 centrifuges\u201d to the North.<\/p>\n
In actuality, North Korea is known to have said in passing at an informal meeting regarding the importing of aluminum pipes, which is the crux of the UEP issue, \u201cWe used them in missile parts or in airplane manufacturing.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, experts have evaluated that these aluminum pipes cannot be used as parts of missiles or airplanes. It will be difficult to jump to the \u201c2nd-phase of denuclearization\u201d without a complete declaration of this issue.<\/p>\n