North Korea says it is in final stage of uranium enrichment

by Staff Writers

Seoul (AFP) Sept 4, 2009

North Korea said Friday it had reached the final stage of enriching uranium, a second way of making nuclear bombs, in a defiant response to tougher United Nations sanctions.

The hardline communist state also announced it was building more plutonium-based atomic weapons.

“Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted its permanent representative to the United Nations as saying.

“Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponised,” the representative said in a letter to the UN Security Council president.

The North, which had recently struck a more conciliatory note after months of tension, said it was prepared “for both dialogue and sanctions.”

Some analysts said its nuclear claims appeared aimed at pressing Washington to open direct talks.

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Tagged as: communism, Korean Central News Agency, news, North Korea, nuclear weapons, plutonium, Pyongyang, UN Security Council, United Nations, uranium, Washington