North Korea

Reactor tower blown up on live TV

Article published on the 2008-06-27 Latest update 2008-06-27 13:20 TU

North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at its main nuclear power plant Thursday in front of cameras from the international news media to show its commitment to nuclear disarmament.

The Pyongyang nuclear facility's cooling tower is destroyed on 27 June 2008
(Photo: Reuters)

As local and international  broadcasters watched, the 18-metre cooling tower at the Yongbyon reactor collapsed in a cloud of dust. The facility had been producing plutonium for a nuclear weapons programme, which was tested in October 2006.

"I regard this as the first step towards denuclearisation," said Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo. "It is important that we carry out thorough verifications. We will deal with this seriously."

On Wednesday North Korea provided details of plutonium production at Yongbyon to the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, and agreed to wind down its military nuclear plans in exchange for help with energy production and security guarantees.

Pyongyang also submitted a partial list of its nuclear weapons programmes. US president George  Bush has announced that he is removing the North Korea from the US list of states sponsoring terrorism, and lifted some sanctions.

Japan welcomes the disarmament, but there is tension between the two countries over Japanese nationals held in North Korea.

Yongbyon had been partially disabled since last year as part of an earlier agreement. Blowing up the tower was not part of the disarmament agreement, but it was a symbolic move to show that there was more than just talk to its commitment to shutting down its atomic weapons programme.