North Korea has not restarted its nuclear plant at Yongbyon but is moving closer to doing so, the US State Department said Friday.
North Korea, accusing Washington of breaking a six-country nuclear disarmament deal, said Friday it is working to restart its atomic reactor and no longer wants US concessions promised under the pact.
North Korea is moving "closer to that point ... of operationalizing Yongbyon again," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
"They haven't got that point yet and we would urge them not to get to that point," he added during the daily briefing.
"They have a choice. They can go down the pathway of having a different kind (eds: correct) of relationship with the world... or they can keep themselves isolated, move the process backward. So we'll see," he said.
"I don't think we're to the point yet of there having fully reversed what they have done," he said.
Asked whether his assessment that North Korea had not restarted the plant had come from US experts in North Korea, McCormack replied: "It's from a variety of different sources, yes."
The hardline communist state, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, began disabling its ageing reactor and other plants at Yongbyon last November under a six-country pact with South Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia.
But it announced last month it had halted work in protest at Washington's refusal to drop it from the US black list of countries supporting terrorism, as promised under the deal.
Washington says the North must first accept strict outside verification of a nuclear inventory which Pyongyang handed over in June. McCormack reiterated that position during the briefing.
McCormack said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expects to discuss North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang while they attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week. "I would expect that this (North Korea) will be an important topic of conversation," McCormack said.
McCormack said Christopher Hill, Rice's nuclear negotiator, would travel to New York on Sunday, but he did not know his schedule when a reporter asked if Hill would meet North Korean officials at the UN.
"We have been in contact with North Korea during this period, as have others, to continue to encourage them to stay involved in the process, meet (their) obligations, and we can assure (them) we will, in turn, meet our obligations," McCormack said.
North Korea, accusing Washington of breaking a six-country nuclear disarmament deal, said Friday it is working to restart its atomic reactor and no longer wants US concessions promised under the pact.
North Korea is moving "closer to that point ... of operationalizing Yongbyon again," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
"They haven't got that point yet and we would urge them not to get to that point," he added during the daily briefing.
"They have a choice. They can go down the pathway of having a different kind (eds: correct) of relationship with the world... or they can keep themselves isolated, move the process backward. So we'll see," he said.
"I don't think we're to the point yet of there having fully reversed what they have done," he said.
Asked whether his assessment that North Korea had not restarted the plant had come from US experts in North Korea, McCormack replied: "It's from a variety of different sources, yes."
The hardline communist state, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, began disabling its ageing reactor and other plants at Yongbyon last November under a six-country pact with South Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia.
But it announced last month it had halted work in protest at Washington's refusal to drop it from the US black list of countries supporting terrorism, as promised under the deal.
Washington says the North must first accept strict outside verification of a nuclear inventory which Pyongyang handed over in June. McCormack reiterated that position during the briefing.
McCormack said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expects to discuss North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang while they attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week. "I would expect that this (North Korea) will be an important topic of conversation," McCormack said.
McCormack said Christopher Hill, Rice's nuclear negotiator, would travel to New York on Sunday, but he did not know his schedule when a reporter asked if Hill would meet North Korean officials at the UN.
"We have been in contact with North Korea during this period, as have others, to continue to encourage them to stay involved in the process, meet (their) obligations, and we can assure (them) we will, in turn, meet our obligations," McCormack said.
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