North Korea begins reassembly of main nuclear facility: officials

North Korea has begun reassembling its main nuclear facility, South Korean officials said Wednesday, in a reversal of steps taken as part of a six-party disarmament agreement.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it had confirmed reports by Japanese broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News Agency that the work on the Yongbyon nuclear reactor resumed on Tuesday.

The move by the North is the latest in the ongoing saga of its negotiations held with South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan. The talks have dragged on for more than five years, plagued by wrangling and numerous delays.

Last year, the North switched off the reactor at Yongbyon, some 100 kilometres north of the capital of Pyongyang, and began disabling the facility in November under the watch of U.S. experts. The facility's cooling tower was demolished in June.

But last week, North Korea said it had stopped disabling the nuclear reactor and threatened to restore the plutonium-producing facility, citing Washington's failure to remove it from the list of terror sponsors.

The designation effectively prevents Pyongyang from receiving low-interest loans from international monetary organizations such as the World Bank.

In response, Washington repeated its demand that North Korea must first agree to a plan to verify an accounting of nuclear programs it submitted in June if it wants to be taken off the list.

Pyongyang shocked the international community in 2006 by detonating a nuclear device in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power. While not as powerful as initially reported, the test sparked a renewal of negotiations that led to an agreement in February 2007.