South Korea warns North over nuclear aims

Roh made his strongest statements yet against North Korea's decision to reactivate its nuclear plant

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VIDEO As North Korea begins repairs on a closed nuclear facility, Pyongyang warned that U.S. policies are leading to the brink of war. CNN's Wolf Blitzer reports PLAY VIDEO RELATED • Analysis: Increasing tensions  • On the scene: U.S. and N. Korea  • Interactive: North Korea's nuclear facility  • Special Report: The two Koreas

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea's incoming president has warned North Korea that its reactivation of a long-shuttered nuclear reactor would hurt long-term relations between the two nations.

In his strongest statement on the issue to date, President-elect Roh Moo-hyun called North Korea's decision to reactivate the Yongbyon nuclear plant a violation of the international community's nonproliferation efforts as well as the Korean people's hopes for peace on the long-divided peninsula.

"The recent nuclear moves are not desirable for the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, and will not help North Korea in its own stability and prosperity," Roh said. "North Korea must withdraw the nuclear measures it has taken and restore the facilities and equipment to their original state.

"At minimum, I urge North Korea not to conduct any additional measure that will worsen the current situation."

Closer ties

His comments follow those by outgoing South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who has spent his term seeking to build closer ties with Seoul's isolated communist neighbor. Kim urged South Korea to take a leading role in settling the dispute along with the United States, Japan, Russia and China.

Kim said Thursday that North Korea was "aggravating the situation" by moving fuel rods to the Yongbyon reprocessing plant. The reactor, which Pyongyang agreed to close in 1994, is capable of producing plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.

Over the weekend, North Korea started removing the safety seals and blocked surveillance cameras international monitoring agencies placed at Yongbyon. Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency called the move "nuclear brinkmanship."

North Korean officials said they have been forced to restart the program because a U.S.-led consortium decided to stop oil shipments after Pyongyang disclosed it had restarted its nuclear weapons program.

The United States believes North Korea has two to three nuclear warheads already and has enough plutonium available at Yongbyon to produce two more, a senior Bush administration official said.

In Seoul, South Korean officials said Thursday they were still in contact with the North and that the moves toward restarting its nuclear program seem aimed at forcing the United States into talks.

-- CNN Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae contributed to this report.

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