NORTH KOREA – UNITED STATES Pyongyang: uranium enrichment to continue

Seoul – North Korea said that the building of a nuclear reactor in North Korea is "progressing apace", rejecting US demands that it put its nuclear ambitions on hold.

“The construction of experimental LWR [light-water reactor] and the low-enriched uranium for the provision of raw materials are progressing apace,” the KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official as saying. However, “The DPRK is ready to resume the six-party talks without preconditions," the official added.

The North Koreans had walked out of the six-party talks (which include the two Korea, China, Russia, the United States and Japan) in April 2009, and one month later carried out a nuclear weapons test.

This led the international community to stop providing humanitarian aid.