September 24, 2008
By Mark Tran and agencies
North Korea has moved a step closer to restarting its nuclear programme after removing a UN watchdog's seals from its Yongbyon reactor.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the agency's board that Pyongyang had said it would reintroduce nuclear material within a week. Analysts have said North Korea would need at least several months - and probably more - to restart the largely dismantled complex.
On Monday, North Korea asked the IAEA to remove seals and cameras from Yongbyon, its main atomic complex, after vowing to restart the facility, effectively reneging on a nuclear disarmament deal with the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.
At six-party talks last year, Pyongyang agreed to scrap its nuclear programme in return for aid from the US, and in November it began dismantling the Yongbyon plant....
Why can't we get back there? Why can't North Korea begin to unravel all the hostilities between itself and others? Why can't this be a turning point whereby the North Korean people receive some kind of reverence from other countries? Why can't the diplomats recognize the sincere insult this pays to a young leader who worries no different than any other government about the image of it's leader?
The Korean people don't have a voice that recognizes their needs and the relief they deserve to become a country that honors it's leader for the benevolence he can find for their problems. The diplomats have to recognize the movement needed to return to a better posture for North Korea and seek to end this hideous set of circumstances which is profoundly defined in the cultures of each country.
There should be no basis for war in these facts. This is a terrible assault on a well established movie production company and it hurt. It hurt at least as much as the parody of the film that was felt by the North Koreans. And if anything is the truth about this cyber breach it is the inflicted injury to Sony, it's leadership and the stars appearing in their films. It was well defined as an attack meant to hurt. And it did. It is obvious what this is about and I think everyone can recognize that fact as well.
