North Korea restarts extracting plutonium

PYONGYANG, North Korea, April 25 (UPI) -- North Korea says it is extracting plutonium from spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyon facility for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

The North's foreign ministry made the announcement Saturday just hours after the U.N. Security Council moved to freeze the assets of two companies and a bank believed to be connected to Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile efforts, the South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

A spokesman for the ministry told the official Korean Central News Agency, "The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14."

North Korea had warned April 14 it was pulling out of stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan. Officials said they would restore the Yongbyon nuclear facility after the Security Council condemned its rocket launch earlier this month.

In the statement, North Korea said the plutonium to be extracted from spent fuel rods would be used to build nuclear weapons.