N. Korean Project Is Suspended

The United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union decided Friday to suspend construction of two nuclear reactors in North Korea, which is suspected of secretly developing atomic weapons.

The four are members of the executive board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which had been building the light-water reactors under a 1994 deal between the United States and North Korea. The reactors were meant to start up in 2007.

The suspension will be for one year, the board said in a statement from its New York headquarters, announcing a decision reached earlier this month.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli, however, said Thursday that the U.S. position was that “there’s no future for the reactor project.”

The fate of the $4.6-billion reactor project came into question when it became apparent a year ago that North Korea was violating the 1994 agreement requiring the regime to cease any nuclear weapons programs.