By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General BanKi-moon said on Thursday he was worried about North Koreanplans to reassemble nuclear facilities and urged Pyongyang tokeep its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Last week U.S. officials said North Korea had taken out ofstorage some mothballed equipment at its Yongbyon nuclearcomplex in what appeared a sign of displeasure over talks onending its atomic programs.
Ban, who is South Korean, told reporters he was "concerneddeeply by (North Korea's) decision to go back to reassemblingthe nuclear facilities.
"They must commit to their agreement among the six-partytalks for the early realization of the denuclearizationprocess," he said.
Pyongyang, which tested a nuclear bomb in 2006, begandisabling the Soviet-era reactor and other facilities atYongbyon in November 2007 as a step toward dismantling themcompletely. The move came in exchange for economic aid andpolitical concessions including removal from a U.S. terrorismblacklist.
But Pyongyang announced on August 26 it would stopdisabling Yongbyon and accused Washington of violating thedenuclearization deal negotiated in six-party talks thatincluded the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the UnitedStates.
Pyongyang said it did so because Washington had failed todrop it from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. TheUnited States countered that North Korea must first agree on asystem to verify its disclosures about its nuclear programs.
Reacting to reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-ilwas recovering from a stroke, Ban said he hoped this would notaffect Pyongyang's commitment.
"I only hope that any situation happening ... should notaffect negatively what has been going on in terms ofdenuclearization process ... of the Korean peninsula as agreedby the six parties," he said.
Analysts say the process of ridding North Korea of atomicweapons would almost certainly be made more complicated in theevent of a leadership struggle in the communist state.
