U.S. Sees Bad Sign at N. Korean Reactor

The apparent shutdown of a nuclear reactor in North Korea is raising concerns among Bush administration officials that Pyongyang has more spent fuel rods laced with weapons-grade plutonium.

A U.S. official familiar with the situation said there could be at least two other possibilities, neither of which was troubling: that the reactor had mechanical trouble or that North Korea was bluffing to raise anxieties.

In the past, Pyongyang has claimed to have taken major steps in its pursuit of a nuclear weapons arsenal, but U.S. analysts say only some of those claims are genuine. Even so, North Korea is believed to have already produced at least one atom bomb, and the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia are trying through six-nation talks to negotiate elimination of the North’s nuclear weapons program.

Pyongyang agreed to return to the bargaining table last September after a three-month hiatus, but since then has refused to resume the talks.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the Bush administration would consult its partners about taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council if the talks remained sidetracked. He offered no timetable.

The shutdown of the reactor in North Korea’s main nuclear complex at Yongbyon was detected by what U.S. analysts refer to as “overhead imagery,” which could involve spy satellites.

“This is entirely feasible, but for us to know for sure, we’d have to be physically there ourselves,” said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

She confirmed that the reactor would have to be shut down for fuel rods to be extracted.

Yongbyon houses a 5-megawatt reactor that generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium.

They would have to be removed and reprocessed to extract the plutonium for use in an atomic weapon.