N. Korea, Consortium Agree to Begin Reactor Construction
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NEW YORK — North Korea and a U.S.-led consortium signed agreements Wednesday that will allow long-delayed construction to begin this summer on two nuclear reactors in the reclusive Communist country.
Work at the site near a remote North Korean fishing village on the east coast should start by early August, said Ho Jong, the country’s ambassador-at-large who signed the documents.
The international consortium--the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization--is providing two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in exchange for a pledge by North Korea to freeze its nuclear program.
The new reactors are safer and produce far less plutonium than North Korea’s outdated Soviet-designed nuclear system. Wednesday’s agreements resolved technical details.
North Korea promised to scrap its nuclear program in a 1994 deal with the United States.
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