SEOUL, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A concrete-pouring ceremony Wednesday marked the beginning of an international project to build two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea.
The U.S.-led international consortium pledged eight years ago to build a nuclear power plant with two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors for North Korea in exchange for the county giving up its military nuclear program. The light-water reactors produce less weapons-grade nuclear material than other models, officials said.
The $4.6 billion project is being constructed at the village of Kumho on North Korea's eastern coast.
The 1994 U.S.-North Korean agreements said the two reactors would not be used for military purposes. The United States also pledged to supply North Korea with fuel until the new reactors are put into operation.
Also, North Korea still has to allow U.N. weapons inspectors into the country to search for any evidence of its suspected atomic weapons program. The United States fears North Korea had before 1994 extracted enough plutonium for two nuclear bombs.
If the construction proceeds according to schedule, the reactors can begin producing electricity in 2008. Originally, the reactors were expected to begin operations in 2003.
Members of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, KEDO, the international organization responsible for building the plant, and journalists traveled to the north for the ceremony.
Jack Pritchard, the U.S. envoy for Korean affairs and U.S. representative on the KEDO board, joined his counterparts from Japan, South Korea and the European Union at the ceremony.
Pritchard said the consortium could complete a significant portion of the project by mid-2005, but North Korea must agree to inspections and comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
North Korea "must start meaningful cooperation now with the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) and must comply with all of its obligations under the Agreed Framework," he said.
"It is now time for us to see the same kind of tangible progress by the DPRK (North Korea) in meeting its commitments under the (1994) Agreed Framework, to cooperate with the IAEA and to come into compliance with the NPT," Pritchard said.
The light-water nuclear project has been delayed following North Korea's test-fire of a ballistic missile in 1998 over Japan, a main financial contributor to the project, and because of time-consuming coordination among the KEDO partners. Work so far has been limited to ground leveling and excavation.
North Korea said the delay was causing an electricity shortage, demanding U.S. compensation for the delay. But Charles Kartman, KEDO's executive director, rejected Pyongyang's demand, saying the consortium has no reason to compensate, because the year 2003 specified in the deal is a target date, not a contracted date.
South Korea hopes the landmark concrete-pouring ceremony would further heighten the prospect of a thaw in relations between North Korea and the United States, with inter-Korean relations back on track following a deadly naval clash in June.
"The concrete pouring means that the construction can never be stopped from now on," KEDO's South Korean representative Chang Seung-sup said. "Thus, it is a very significant ceremony."
Kim Hee Mun, who represents North Korea for the light-water reactor project, expressed hopes of an earlier completion of the long-delayed project when he met reporters. KEDO officials met in Seoul this week ahead of their trip to the North to discuss progress on the project, which is some five years behind schedule.
