BRITAIN/NORTH KOREA: Britain has condemned North Korea's plan to restart an atomic plant at the heart of its suspected nuclear arms programme and says it must "get back into line" before the world could address its aid needs.
Foreign Office minister Mr Bill Rammell said yesterday it was not clear whether the Yongbyon reactor, which North Korea says would produce desperately needed electricity, had actually resumed operation.
If it had been restarted, it would mark a further escalation in a growing crisis between the isolated Stalinist state and the international community.
"Clearly the statements they are making and some of the indications suggest that they want to move in that direction," Mr Rammell said. "That would be yet another ratcheting up of the pressure."
North Korea's suggestion this week that it was poised to restart the Yongbyon plant was the latest step in an arms showdown which began in October when Washington said North Korea was violating a 1994 accord freezing its nuclear programme.
Since then, North Korea has expelled IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors, withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and threatened to resume missile tests.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying this week that his country might strike US forces pre-emptively rather than wait for attack from Washington.
Meanwhile, Greece said yesterday it had cancelled a visit to North and South Korea to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear stand-off but gave no reason why it had done so. Greece currently holds the EU presidency. The EU mission was scheduled for February 11th-12th.
A Greek Foreign Ministry official said that the Foreign Minister, Mr George Papandreou, who was to head the mission, would still travel as planned to Beijing for an EU-China meeting scheduled for February 14th. - (Reuters)