Mick Hartley

Well, it didn’t take long for the much-heralded breakthrough with North Korea to start unravelling:

North Korea has said it will not scrap its nuclear programme until it is given a civilian nuclear reactor, undermining an agreement reached 24 hours earlier.

Pyongyang agreed on Monday to dismantle its nuclear programme in return for aid and security guarantees, following six-nation talks.

The BBC’s Charles Scanlon says that the North’s new statement looks like a recipe for continued deadlock.

Both Japan and the US have rejected Pyongyang’s demand for a reactor.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said the North’s demand was “unacceptable”, Kyodo News agency reported.

Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US State Department, said: “This was obviously not the agreement they signed, and we will see what the coming weeks bring.” […]

[I]n a statement broadcast on North Korean radio early on Tuesday morning local time, Pyongyang reiterated its “right to peaceful nuclear activities”.

It said the US “should not even dream” it would dismantle its nuclear arsenal until Washington had provided it with a light-water nuclear reactor.

Soon afterwards, Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan told reporters that his nation was not prepared to make the first move.

“They are telling us to give up everything, but there will be no such thing as giving it up first,” he said.