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U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher in a written response to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the EU, India and Japan reprocess nuclear fuel within their own territories at present, but she did not think the Obama administration must apply those cases of authorized reprocessing to other countries, including South Korea. She added there was no need for a revision in the Atomic Energy Agreement signed between South Korea and the United States. The comments effectively slap down calls within South Korea to start reprocessing its own spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. government seems wary of South Korea reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from the standpoint of "peaceful" use of nuclear energy, suspecting that the country over the long-term wants to make its own nuclear weapons. South Korea tried to develop nuclear weapons in the 1970s, but scrapped the plan. Now the issue has re-emerged after North Korea's second nuclear test.

"Korea settled for a top 16 spot in the South Africa World Cup, the first such feat on foreign soil, but in terms of nuclear deals, Korea appears to be breezing past top dogs such as France. After winning a mega deal in the Middle East last year, Korea is now in talks with the Turkish government to build a pair of nuclear power reactors with the aim of gaining substantial results this year. The latest blip on Korea's atomic energy export radar is Mexico, where a senior bureaucrat asked for assistance in nurturing specialists in nuclear power plants. Mexico's Energy Minister Girogina Kessel Martinez made the request at a recent meeting with his counterpart Choi Kyung-hwan, minister of knowledge economy. ``Originally, it was not on the official agenda. But Mexican officials made the request all of a sudden. Martinez plans to visit Korea for more detailed discussions,'' a ministry official said."

South Korea signed a US$20 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates to build four nuclear power plants in the oil-rich country, a deal expected to generate contracts for South Korean companies worth an additional $20 billion for decades to come, South Korea's presidential office said Sunday. The agreement marks South Korea's first nuclear power plant export deal. The biggest energy deal contracted ever either by South Korea or UAE was signed by a consortium led by South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. shortly after a summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his UAE counterpart Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan here.

South Korea signed a US$20 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates to build four nuclear power plants in the oil-rich country, a deal expected to generate contracts for South Korean companies worth an additional $20 billion for decades to come, South Korea's presidential office said Sunday. The agreement marks South Korea's first nuclear power plant export deal. The biggest energy deal contracted ever either by South Korea or UAE was signed by a consortium led by South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. shortly after a summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his UAE counterpart Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan here.

Korea signed a US$20 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates to build four nuclear power plants in the oil-rich country, a deal expected to generate contracts for South Korean companies worth an additional $20 billion for decades to come, South Korea's presidential office said Sunday. The agreement marks South Korea's first nuclear power plant export deal.

"Abnormally high radiation levels were detected near the border between the two Koreas days after North Korea claimed to have mastered a complex technology key to manufacturing a hydrogen bomb, Seoul said Monday. The Science Ministry said its investigation ruled out a nuclear test by North Korea, but failed to determine the source of the radiation. It said there was no evidence of a strong earthquake, which follows an atomic explosion. On May 12, North Korea claimed its scientists succeeded in creating a nuclear fusion reaction - a technology necessary to manufacture a hydrogen bomb. In its announcement, the North did not say how it would use the technology, only calling it a "breakthrough toward the development of new energy.""

# Despite Monday's nuclear test, the latest North Korean nuclear crisis really began last June, when the Bush administration began unilaterally rewriting an agreement with North Korea. # During her February trip to the region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went out of her way to antagonize North Korea in order to reassure Japan and South Korea. # Sustained diplomatic give-and-take that holds out a new political, economic, and strategic relationship between Washington and Pyongyang would be a more productive strategy.

"Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter on Tuesday voiced cautious criticism against the United Nations sanctions imposed on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), calling them "unproductive." "North Korea (DPRK) has approximately 24 million people, and they have been suffering now for 50 years, not only because of the policies of the government in Pyongyang but because the international community increased that suffering by preventing normal supplies of the basic necessities of life," the 85-year-old former U.S. president said in a question-and-answer session following the speech titled "A Nuclear North Korea and Peace on the Korean Peninsula" at Seoul's Korea University. "My country and your country participate in this punishment of North Korean people," he said, adding that the government in Pyongyang blames the economic plight of its people on foreigners. He also called for a "more direct" negotiation with the DPRK in resolving the nuclear standoff, saying that Pyongyang, which he said appears "very paranoid" about possible foreign attempts to bring down the country, needs reassurance."

"A leading Russian expert on North Korea said on Thursday he had serious doubts about Pyongyang's involvement into the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship. Relations between the two Koreas soured after Seoul accused North Korea of firing a torpedo from a submarine at the 1,200-ton South Korean Cheonan corvette. The vessel sank near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on March 26 causing the loss of 46 lives. "I personally have serous doubts that it was North Korea that sank the ship. Why do this? For what purpose?... I don't see any logic," said Konstantin Pulikovsky, who maintained official contacts with Pyongyang while serving as presidential envoy to Russia's Far East in 2000-2005."

South Korea has taken the lead in talks to sell Jordan a nuclear power plant through a private deal without a formal bidding process, which would be its first such export deal, local media reported on Wednesday citing a top executive. "Jordan's No.1 nuclear power plant (project) is leaning towards a private deal with South Korea without a public bid," Kim Ssang-soo, the chief executive officer of state-run Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) (015760.KS), was quoted as saying during his trip to Amman.

North Korea has accused US President Barack Obama of plotting a nuclear war on the communist nation by reaffirming a US assurance of security for South Korea, the North's state media said. In a first official response to last week's US-South Korean summit, the state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said in its Saturday edition Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak "are trying to ignite a nuclear war". "The US-touted provision of 'extended deterrence, including a nuclear umbrella' (for South Korea) is nothing but 'a nuclear war plan,'" Tongil Sinbo said.

Japan says it is deploying missile interceptors to destroy any parts of a North Korean rocket that might fall on its territory. North Korea has said it will launch a satellite into orbit next month. South Korea, Japan and the US say the launch is cover for a test of the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. The US said a launch would violate UN Security Council resolutions. Russia said North Korea should "abstain" from testing any missiles.

"South Korea, which won its first overseas order to build a nuclear power plant in December, aims to secure $400 billion of contracts by 2030 as demand for atomic energy increases. The nation plans to get orders to build 80 nuclear plants by then and control 20 percent of the global market share, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in an e-mailed statement today. South Korea will become the world's third-largest nuclear plant exporter, according to the ministry. State-run Korea Electric Power Corp. led a group that beat Areva SA, the world's biggest nuclear power plant builder, and General Electric Co. in winning an order from the United Arab Emirates, the first awarded by a Gulf Arab nation. France, the U.S., Canada, Japan and Russia are currently the biggest exporters of atomic generators. "

The top nuclear negotiators of the United States, South Korea and Japan rushed to Beijing to hold intense discussions for three days last week. They gathered in Beijing after North Korea announced it will stop disabling its nuclear program while showing signs of reactivating its nuclear facilities. The North's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan did not show up in Beijing. The three negotiators helplessly returned home after asking China's Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei to encourage North Korea to return to the six-way nuclear talks.

Areva, working in consortium with Korean engineering contractor Daelim Industrial, has secured a contract from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, South Korean nuclear power plants operator, to replace the six steam generators on the Ulchin 1 and 2 nuclear power plants during outages planned for 2011 and 2012. Areva as original equipment manufacturer will lead the consortium and perform the primary system and licensing operations in co-operation with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and Korea Power Engineering (KOPEC). Daelim will implement all the secondary and local activities associated with the project. Areva said that its resources, practices and technologies in France, Germany and the US will also be rolled out for the project.

Developments in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs: _ 1994: Under agreement with U.S., North Korea pledges to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for help building two safer power-producing nuclear reactors. _ Aug. 31, 1998: North Korea fires suspected missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, calling it a satellite. _ Sept. 13, 1999: North pledges to freeze long-range missile tests. _ Sept. 17, 1999: President Bill Clinton agrees to first major easing of economic sanctions against North Korea since Korean War's end in 1953.

It's the first step toward widespread Korean export of today's most promising clean energy source. Korea now has some of the world's most efficient, cutting-edge plant designs. It might seem strange for a bunch of nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates that aren't even built yet to be all over the evening news in Korea, but that's exactly what happened last month.

It's the first step toward widespread Korean export of today's most promising clean energy source. Korea now has some of the world's most efficient, cutting-edge plant designs. It might seem strange for a bunch of nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates that aren't even built yet to be all over the evening news in Korea, but that's exactly what happened last month.

"The U.S. is unlikely to allow South Korea to reprocess spent nuclear fuel that is piling up in secure storage facilities until a satisfactory solution to the North Korean nuclear problem is found, a report said this week. The matter is a key issue in negotiations between Seoul and Washington on the revision of the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement, which expires in 2014. Fred McGoldrick, a former chief U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, published the report on prospects for Seoul-Washington negotiations about nuclear energy at the request of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy of the Asia Foundation in the U.S. "It is difficult to imagine that the United States would agree to South Korean pyroprocessing until the North Korean nuclear issue reaches a satisfactory resolution," he wrote. "

"A barrage of domestic news reports have highlighted the Dec. 27 Korea-United Arab Emirates (UAE) contract, pointing out that a Korean consortium is scheduled to design, build and operate nuclear power plants for the Middle East country's energy program for the next 60 years. As the first case of Korea's export of nuclear technology, there is no doubt that the multibillion-dollar contract is a major economic, technological and diplomatic achievement for the country, which built its first commercial nuclear plant in 1978. However, a closer look at foreign media reports, including those from the UAE, indicates that the deal is not as lucrative as projected by the domestic reports. One of the most glaring discrepancies between domestic and foreign reports is the exact size of the contract procured by the Korean consortium - led by the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) - to provide four APR1400, a Korean-made nuclear power unit that has yet to make a domestic debut. Following a decision that selected Korea over France as the winner of the largest-ever energy deal awarded in the Middle East, the Emirates News Agency reported that "the value of the contract for the construction, commissioning and fuel loads for four units equaled approximately $20 billion, with a high percentage of the contract being offered under a fixed-price arrangement.""

"The United States studied a plan for a nuclear strike on North Korea in 1969 but advisers to then-president Richard Nixon concluded it was best to remain calm, declassified documents showed Wednesday. The documents, obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, foreshadow present-day US frustration on how to handle Pyongyang following its nuclear tests and the sinking of a South Korean ship. In 1969, North Korea shot down a US spy aircraft over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), killing the 31 personnel on board."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview on Sunday that the United States did not trust North Korea and as a result was pushing for strict procedures to ensure the regime abandon its nuclear weapons program. Asked by a NBC television reporter if the US administration had placed too much trust in North Korea in six-party talks, as some US conservative commentators have charged, Rice said: "No, and of course we didn't trust them." "What we are negotiating is a verification protocol because nobody does trust them. And in fact, if you look at the agreement that was signed in September of 2005, it committed the North to de-nuclearization within a context of the Six Parties," Rice told NBC's "Meet the Press."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says only an "idiot" would trust North Korea, reiterating the United States will suspend heating oil aid to Pyongyang. Speaking before the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, the Voice of America quoted Rice telling the group, "I mean, who trusts the North Koreans? You'd have to be an idiot to trust the North Koreans," Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported Saturday. When she made the comment, Rice was defending the Bush administration against criticism from U.S. conservatives that the United States was placing too much trust in Pyongyang in the ongoing six-party talks aimed at the denuclearization of North Korea.