APTN: N.Korea Ready To Shut Down Reactor

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

APTN: N.Korea Ready To Shut Down Reactor
North Korea Ready To Quickly Shut Down Reactor After
Receiving Frozen Funds: APTN

PYONGYANG, North Korea, May. 7, 2007

(AP) North Korea is ready to quickly shut down its nuclear reactor
as soon as it receives funds that had been frozen in a banking
dispute, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

"The shutdown is something that can be done immediately and it
won't take long," Ri Kyong Son, vice spokesman at the ministry, told
APTN in an interview in Pyongyang.

North Korea missed an April deadline to close the Yongbyon nuclear
reactor under a February agreement with the United States and four
neighboring countries, but has said its commitment to the deal
remains unchanged.

The North's key precondition to move on disarmament is the release
of some $25 million frozen after Washington blacklisted a Macau bank
where the North Korean regime held accounts. Washington helped
unfreeze the funds to win the North's promise to start dismantling
its nuclear weapons programs, but technical issues have stalled the
transfer.

Ri said Monday he could not predict when North Korea would access
the money.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/07/ap/world/main2766684.shtml