North Korea has missed a deadline to shut down its main reactor. The US has urged North Korea to fulfil its pledge to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, as Pyongyang missed a key deadline for closing the plant. North Korea should "immediately" invite nuclear experts to begin sealing the facility, the US state department said.
But the US said it remained committed to the landmark 13 February agreement.
Under the deal, North Korea agreed to close Yongbyon within 60 days in return for aid. But a row over funds frozen in Macau has stalled progress on the deal.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said it was time for North Korea "to make its move so that all of us can move forward".
In Beijing, US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said that North Korea's failure to meet the 14 April deadline was cause for concern.
But he said that Chinese officials had urged the US to show patience and to wait "a couple more days" for Pyongyang to comply.
"They said the lines of communication were open... if it is going to get resolved it certainly should be able to get resolved very soon," he said.
What a shock, bribing the Norks to promise to someday turn off the nukes didn't work. What is bizarre is after decrying the Clinton strategy the Bush gang decided to adopt it wholeheartedly. Everyone who thought that was a good idea was never going to give them much credit for "seeing the light" and the reasons it was a bad idea before were still valid. There might be perfectly good reasons for treating with the Boy Tyrant of Pyongyang in spite of his efforts to proliferate (like say the nasty potential effects on Sino-Korean relations of the regime falling apart) but the Bush team touted this deal as a disarmament program. On the bright side, I'm sure the North Koreans will be ready to talk again soon as long we'll keep giving them something for nothing.
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