SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea may be preparing to shut down its main nuclear reactor, news reports said Tuesday, renewing hopes that Pyongyang will comply with a disarmament agreement days after it missed a deadline to shutter the facility.The report came a day after a South Korean official said this government may suspend rice shipments to North Korea to ratchet up pressure on the North to comply with its nuclear disarmament pledges.
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Yonhap news agency cited another unnamed intelligence official as saying that South Korea and the United States have been closely monitoring some movement since a month ago. "The intensity of these activities has increased from about a week or two ago," the official was quoted as saying. "There are activities other than cars and people moving busily."
On Monday, an unnamed South Korean official said South Korea could temporarily suspend rice shipments to North Korea in an effort to increase pressure on the North to shut down the atomic reactor. "We can't just ignore and do nothing if ... North Korea doesn't take initial steps" to disarm as agreed in February at six-nation nuclear talks, the official said, according to the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper. Other dailies carried similar reports.
The two Koreas were set to begin talks Wednesday in Pyongyang to discuss the North's request for 400,000 tons of rice.