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North Korea blows up nuclear facility
An enormous bang and a puff of smoke and dust, which the reclusive regime of Kim Jong-il allowed to be filmed by international broadcasters, provided a dramatic climax to years of negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme.
It could also mark the moment when its old enmity with the United States starts to fade.
It took place the day after President George W Bush in Washington agreed to lift its trade embargo on North Korea, and to remove the country from its list of state sponsors of terror.
In Beijing, North Korea had handed to the Chinese foreign ministry a document giving details of its nuclear programme, as demanded by an aid-for-bombs deal agreed in February last year. The controlled explosion took place at 4pm local time.
Among those known to be in the audience were representatives from other members of the six-nation negotiating marathon that have been battling over the nuclear programme since August 2003, including Sung Kim, from the US state department.
Some of North Korea's leading scientists were also watching as their life's work was dismantled before them. One said he was "both excited and sad".
The event was filmed by cameras from broadcasting organisations invited as witnesses from the five other nations - the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
The demolition of the 60ft cooling tower was a largely symbolic gesture. The North Koreans dismantled the plant last November, the first fruits of the Beijing deal under which North Korea will be provided with energy aid by China and South Korea in return for giving up its nuclear programme.
The declaration, released six months late, was being scoured by experts and diplomats from the five other nations yesterday. It is understood to give details of the plutonium reprocessed at the plant, at Yongbyon north-east of Pyongyang, including the stockpile believed to be enough to build six to 10 nuclear weapons.
But it omits the number of nuclear weapons actually created, and any mention of North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment programme.
This programme, which can also be used to create nuclear weapons, triggered the long stand-off between North Korea and the United States in the first place. North Korea always formally denied its existence, but the United States cited it in in 2002 in halting aid programmes agreed under a previous deal.
"It is important to get North Korea out of the plutonium business, but that will not be the end of the story," Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said at a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Japan.
North Korea blows up nuclear facility - Telegraph
An enormous bang and a puff of smoke and dust, which the reclusive regime of Kim Jong-il allowed to be filmed by international broadcasters, provided a dramatic climax to years of negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme.
It could also mark the moment when its old enmity with the United States starts to fade.
It took place the day after President George W Bush in Washington agreed to lift its trade embargo on North Korea, and to remove the country from its list of state sponsors of terror.
In Beijing, North Korea had handed to the Chinese foreign ministry a document giving details of its nuclear programme, as demanded by an aid-for-bombs deal agreed in February last year. The controlled explosion took place at 4pm local time.
Among those known to be in the audience were representatives from other members of the six-nation negotiating marathon that have been battling over the nuclear programme since August 2003, including Sung Kim, from the US state department.
Some of North Korea's leading scientists were also watching as their life's work was dismantled before them. One said he was "both excited and sad".
The event was filmed by cameras from broadcasting organisations invited as witnesses from the five other nations - the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
The demolition of the 60ft cooling tower was a largely symbolic gesture. The North Koreans dismantled the plant last November, the first fruits of the Beijing deal under which North Korea will be provided with energy aid by China and South Korea in return for giving up its nuclear programme.
The declaration, released six months late, was being scoured by experts and diplomats from the five other nations yesterday. It is understood to give details of the plutonium reprocessed at the plant, at Yongbyon north-east of Pyongyang, including the stockpile believed to be enough to build six to 10 nuclear weapons.
But it omits the number of nuclear weapons actually created, and any mention of North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment programme.
This programme, which can also be used to create nuclear weapons, triggered the long stand-off between North Korea and the United States in the first place. North Korea always formally denied its existence, but the United States cited it in in 2002 in halting aid programmes agreed under a previous deal.
"It is important to get North Korea out of the plutonium business, but that will not be the end of the story," Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said at a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Japan.
North Korea blows up nuclear facility - Telegraph
