U.S. says North Korea stuck to nuclear promises

U.S. says North Korea stuck to nuclear promises
Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:34pm EDT

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea has kept its
promise and reversed steps to restart its nuclear
reactor at Yongbyon after an agreement last weekend
between Washington and Pyongyang, the State
Department said on Friday.

"The North Koreans have in their efforts reversed all
their reversals in the reactor. All the seals are back
on, the surveillance equipment is back, reinstalled.
And the equipment that had been removed is back where
it had been," said State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack.

"In addition, they have moved more rods from the reactor.
On the reactor, they have actually gone beyond where
they were prior to their reversing the disablement steps,"
he told reporters, adding that 60 percent of the nuclear
fuel rods had been taken out of the reactor.

However, in the fuel reprocessing facility, the North
Koreans had more to do. "They have not yet gotten to
that baseline where they were," he said. "There is still
work to be done, but progress on it."

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