What are North Koreas Motives for Nuclear Program?
Washington, Feb. 5 2003 (VOA News) — North Korea said it has restarted its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, adding to the controversy over the country’s nuclear ambitions. For now, North Korea says, the plant will be used to make electricity. Pyongyang’s announcement comes less than a week after U.S. news reports said North Korea may be removing spent fuel rods from Yongbyon as a first step toward resuming its nuclear weapons program. According to recent news reports, U.S. satellite photos show trucks at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, where about 8,000 spent fuel rods have been stored during the past decade. If North Korea is removing those rods, that could mean it is getting ready to reprocess the fuel to make weapons-grade plutonium. In 1994, North Korea agreed to shut down its facility at Yongbyon and stop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for U.S., South Korean, and Japanese help in building less controversial nuclear energy plants. Last October, the United States said North
