YONGBYON, North Korea --North Korea opened its main nuclear reactor to foreign media for the first time Friday in a bid to show that it is complying with a disarmament accord to disable the facility.

Broadcaster APTN was permitted to visit the reactor facility in Yongbyon, the heart of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Its footage showed North Korean workers in white head-to-toe protective suits removing spent nuclear fuel from the facility's 5 megawatt reactor.

The visit came as six-nation negotiations on the nuclear dispute are stalled over differences on whether North Korea has fully declared its nuclear programs under an October accord reached with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

At the site, a senior Yongbyon official reiterated the government's position that it is disabling the reactor as promised in the disarmament-for-aid deal, but that it has slowed down its compliance because the other countries were not meeting their commitments.

"It has been slowed down. Especially the discharge of fuel rods from the core has been slowed down," Yu Sun Chol, Yongbyon's chief engineer, told APTN.

"We think the main reason for that is that the United States and other six-party countries, they have not fulfilled their commitments for the agreement of the six-party talks," he said.

The October deal, along with a February 2007 agreement, call for North Korea to disable the reactor and other facilities and fully declare its nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and other concessions. For its part, Washington has promised to consider removing North Korea from terrorism and economic sanctions blacklists.

North Korea claims it gave the U.S. a full accounting of its nuclear programs in November, but Washington says the North never produced a "complete and correct" list.

APTN footage showed partially dismantled facilities around Yongbyon, a complex 60 miles north of Pyongyang, which houses North Korea's sole working reactor and plants to process nuclear fuel.

Also shown inside the reactor building was a red-and-white slogan reading, "Let's safeguard Dear General Kim Jong Il with our lives," referring to the leader of the communist nation. Photos of Kim and his late father and national founder Kim Il Sung hung on the wall of the reactor's control room.

The senate hearing was given this isssue back in October 21st 1997 submitted by the U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, Washington, DC. There were two witnesses who are former North Korean government officials and who have unique insights into the views of the North Korean government. Colonel Ju-Hwal Choi is the highest ranking military defector from North Korea and served in the Ministry of the People's Army. Mr. Young-Hwan Ko is a former North Korean diplomat who served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both are now at the Research Institute for North Korean Affairs in Seoul and testified in October 21st, 1997 with the assistance of an interpreter. (4).

In a roundtable discussion with the United States and China in Beijing on April 24, 2003, North Korean officials admitted for the first time that they possessed nuclear weapons. Furthermore, North Korean officials claim to have reprocessed spent fuel rods and have threatened to begin exporting nuclear materials unless the United States agrees to one-on-one talks with North Korea.

Tensions between the United States and North Korea have been running especially high since, in early October of 2002, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly informed North Korean officials that the United States was aware that North Korea had a program underway to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons. Initially North Korea denied this, but later confirmed the veracity of the US claim. In confirming that they had an active nuclear weapons program, they also declared the Agreed Framework nullified.

The Agreed Framework signed by the United States and North Korea on October 21, 1994 in Geneva agreed that:

North Korea would freeze its existing nuclear program and agree to enhanced International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards

• Both sides would cooperate to replace the D.P.R.K.'s graphite-moderated reactors for related facilities with light-water (LWR) power plants.
  

• Both countries would move toward full normalization of political and economic relations.
  

• Both sides will work together for peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
  

• And that both sides would work to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Prior to the establishment of the Agreed Framework, intelligence sources believed that North Korea could have extracted plutonium from their reactors for use in nuclear weapons; perhaps enough for one or two nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, it has remained unclear whether North Korea had actually produced nuclear weapons due to difficulties in developing detonation devices.

N Korea has deployed over 300 Nodong-x (medum range - Japan and Okinawa) and close to a thousand Scud-B/C missiles (short range - S Korea) all of which can carry nuclear or chemical warheads. NoDong-1's have a range of 1,300km and NoDong-2's have a range of 1,500-2,000km. N Korea is believed to have a limited number of Taepodong-x ICBMs (long range - America) hidden in underground tunnels.

The Taepo Dong-2 ICBM has a maximum range of 6,200 miles. The US DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) estimates that the missile has a range of about 4,650 miles with large nuclear warheads and 6,200 miles with smaller warheads. At the extreme of 6,200 mil es, the missile could reach all major West Coast cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego,,,) and reach as far east as Chicago.(6)

In February 22nd, 2008, the North Korea opened its main nuclear reactor to foreign media for the first time Friday in a bid to show that it is complying with a disarmament accord to disable the facility. The world is concern about the North Korea's nuclear reactors.

Reported by Catch4all.com, Sandra Englund, Feburary 23rd, 2008