Word: yongbyon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Still, the optimism born of the last talks in August, when the U.S. thought + it had resolved several key disputes, has dissipated. Pyongyang had agreed to replace its suspect gas-graphite reactor at Yongbyon and two larger ones under construction with two light-water reactors that would generate far less plutonium that could be used in bombs. The U.S. had promised its allies would pay most of the $4 billion price...
...week Kang insisted the North would never permit special inspections, and would only start talking to the IAEA about its past nuclear program once the new reactors were more than 50% complete. Kang also said his government intended to keep the plutonium-rich fuel rods it removed from the Yongbyon reactor last May in North Korea instead of shipping them abroad...
Washington can afford to wait a few weeks. IAEA inspectors note that North Korea is finally taking better care of the fuel rods removed from the Yongbyon reactor; they can remain safely in their cooling ponds for several more months under present conditions and much longer if the water quality is improved. Bill Clinton has no interest in encouraging another big international crisis while American troops are deployed in Haiti. But the fear that Pyongyang is just buying time while it builds secret bombs weighs more heavily than ever on many minds in Washington. Clinton will need real results soon...
...path was cleared by three promises from the North Koreans. In a letter to Washington they pledged they would not extract the plutonium -- enough for four or five atom bombs -- from the 8,000 fuel rods they removed from their nuclear reactor at Yongbyon earlier this month. They will not reload the 5-MW reactor with new fuel rods. And they will allow international inspectors to remain on duty to verify those promises. "This does not solve the problem," Clinton said, "but it certainly gives us the basis for seeking a solution." To pursue it, the two sides will...
...does believe confrontation might ultimately be required, he can build global support only by trying every possible diplomatic step short of that. Possibly he has simply not thought it through. A pause now does not cost Washington any more than it costs Pyongyang. But if the fuel rods in Yongbyon begin to yield up their plutonium, Clinton could be forced to decide exactly how tough he will...