N. Korea Plans New Reactors

North Korea plans to build light-water atomic reactors and develop two other reactors that can produce large amounts of fissile material to boost its nuclear deterrent, the nation’s official media said Tuesday.

Six-country talks to try to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs have stalled, and diplomats said the latest comment from the North’s official KCNA news agency could further complicate negotiations.

The government in Pyongyang had not said before that it planned to build light-water reactors, which are more difficult to use for weapons purposes. But it had threatened to resume work on developing two graphite-moderated reactors, which can produce large amounts of material for bombs, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.

“There have never been any plans for North Korea to build” light-water reactors on its own, the official said by phone.

In Washington, the State Department said any such construction would break commitments North Korea made at six-country nuclear talks in September, when Pyongyang pledged to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs.

Nuclear experts say North Korea, which operates one small nuclear reactor built with technology from the 1960s and 1970s, does not have the technology or money to build light-water reactors anytime soon.