The construction of a nuclear power project in North Korea will remain suspended for another year, the U.S.-led overseers of the project said on Friday. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, a consortium that includes the United States and South Korea, suspended the work last December after the United States said in October 2002 that North Korea had admitted working on an uranium-enrichment project as part of a nuclear arms program. "The future of the project will be assessed and decided by the executive board before the expiration of the suspension period," the New York-based organization, known as KEDO, said in a statement.
The board of KEDO, which also includes Japan and the European Union, said the site of two prospective light-water reactors in North Korea would be preserved and maintained under the suspension for an additional year beginning Dec. 1. The light water reactor project in Kumho, North Korea, was the product of a 1994 agreement to meet North Korea's energy needs in exchange for Pyongyang's promise to freeze its nuclear programs. The United States said in October 2002 that North Korean work on a secret uranium enrichment project nullified the 1994 agreement and it pressed to stop work on the two reactors. |