Report: North Korea destroys reactor's cooling tower (2nd Lead)

Asia-Pacific News

Jun 27, 2008, 10:20 GMT

Seoul - North Korea on Friday blew up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear plant in a move toward dismantling its nuclear programme in exchange for the easing of sanctions against the communist state, South Korean television station MBC reported. A tv grab taken from t South Korea's MBC broadcasting station as it announced the destruction of the cooling tower in Yongbyun in of North Korea, 27 June 2008.South Korea's political parties on Friday welcomed North Korea's destruction of its nuclear cooling tower, urging the communist regime to completely denuclearize to secure peace on the Korean Peninsula. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN

A tv grab taken from t South Korea's MBC broadcasting station as it announced the destruction of the cooling tower in Yongbyun in of North Korea, 27 June 2008.South Korea's political parties on Friday welcomed North Korea's destruction of its nuclear cooling tower, urging the communist regime to completely denuclearize to secure peace on the Korean Peninsula. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUNThe demolition of the 25-metre tower, which was shut down in 2007, came a day after Pyongyang delivered a declaration of its nuclear programmes to China under an agreement reached at six-nation disarmament talks. In exchange, the United States agreed to ease some of its sanctions against North Korea and remove the communist state from its terrorism blacklist. The reactor in Yongbyon, 100 kilometres north of Pyongyang, produced the plutonium that North Korea used to conduct its first nuclear weapons test in October 2006. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak called North Korea's destruction of the cooling tower there 'a politically symbolic event indicative of its determination to disable its nuclear weapons programme.' But Lee - who has seen strained ties with North Korea since he took office in February after making inter-Korean cooperation projects conditional on the North's progress in dismantling its nuclear programmes - warned the demolition was an initial step. 'North Korea has many additional steps to carry out before its complete denuclearization,' he said. A representative of the Chinese government also called the demolition an important symbolic move and a good basis for a continuation of the six-nation talks. China is the host of the five-year-long talks to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programmes and create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. The other countries involved are the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States.

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Why not? It' has served it's purpose.Jun 27th, 2008 - 16:20:53

Stupidest empty gesture ever.

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SP4: weJun 27th, 2008 - 23:04:33

...should have blown it up for him. This guy makes trouble in the region and then gets concessions for fixing them. China could shut this down with a phone call, but chooses to destabilize the region. Someone needs to tell this guy he's only president for life.

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and SP4...Jun 28th, 2008 - 03:36:19

is an idiot for life.

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SP4: is a closet homosexualJun 28th, 2008 - 08:54:35

He has regular sexual intercourse with his own dad and he believes in santa claus.

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