PYONGYANG: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced yesterday that it had recently finished unloading 8,000 spent fuel rods from a 5-megawatt pilot nuclear reactor.

"The relevant field of the DPRK has successfully finished the unloading of 8,000 spent fuel rods from the 5-megawatt pilot nuclear plant in the shortest period recently," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.

"Because the Bush administration (of the United States) threatened the DPRK with nuclear weapons in violation of the DPRK- US Agreed Framework," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the spokesman as saying, "the DPRK had already declared in December 2002 that it would re-operate the nuclear plant and resume the construction of two other nuclear plants, one with a capacity of 50,000 kw and the other with a capacity of 200,000 kw.

"The DPRK keeps taking necessary measures to bolster its nuclear arsenal for the defensive purpose of coping with the prevailing situation, with a main emphasis on developing the self- reliant nuclear power industry," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

The 5-megawatt reactor, which is reportedly in Nyongbyon, about 80 kilometres north of the capital city of Pyongyang, is a graphite- moderated nuclear reactor.

The spent fuel rods removed from such reactors can be enriched into weapons-grade plutonium.

In an agreement between the DPRK and the United States in 1994, the United States promised to construct two light-water reactors for the DPRK in exchange for the freezing of the DPRK's nuclear facilities.

However, in late 2002, the DPRK accused the US of failing to fulfill its promise and announced it would re-operate its nuclear facilities.

In April 2003, the DPRK said the reprocessing of its 8,000 spent fuel rods had "successfully entered the final phase."

Yesterday, China urged restraint from all parties to six-way talks on the DPRK nuclear ambitions, after Pyongyang announced it had completed extracting the nuclear fuel rods.

"We ask all the parties to exercise restraint and we hope that they will do nothing that is detrimental to the resumption of the Six-Party Talks," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea (ROK) said yesterday it was very concerned by the DPRK's announcement and urged Pyongyang to return to multilateral talks.

ROK Foreign Ministry said on its website that "such a move" by the DPRK "runs counter to moves to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, the government is expressing deep concerns."

"Now that countries involved in six-way talks are making sincere efforts to resume, we strongly urge North Korea (DPRK) to stop acts that could have a negative impact on such efforts," it added.

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