DPRK destroys cooling tower at Yongbyon nuclear complex_English

The cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, North Korea is seen in this December 18, 2007 file photo. (Xinhua Photo)
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PYONGYANG, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) destroyed the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex Friday afternoon.

The 30-meter-tall tower, with the diameters of its bottom and top 22 and 13 meters respectively, was blown up at 5:05 p.m. local time (0805 GMT), a Xinhua correspondent who had been on the scene said.

A combination photo shows a cooling tower (R) and the site after it was demolished (L) at a DPRK nuclear plant June 27, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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The Xinhua correspondent, along with some other journalists, standing some 1,500 meters from the tower, first saw smoke rise from the exploded tower, and then heard a loud explosion.

The tower, a key structure of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, was reduced to a pile of rubble in just one second, with black smoke rising into the sky.

Earlier, South Korea's MBC TV said the facility was destroyed shortly after 4 p.m. local time (0700 GMT).

The DPRK's nuclear program is centered at Yongbyon, about 100 km north of Pyongyang. It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material would be extracted from spent fuel rods.

The destruction of the cooling tower, a key element of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, symbolized significant progress in the disablement phase under the September 2005 agreement of the six-party talks, and meant it would be impossible for the DPRK to restart its nuclear program in a short time.

The six-party talks, aimed at the disarmament of the DPRK's nuclear weapons program, have the momentum to reach the next phase.

At least one U.S. State Department official and some U.S. technicians witnessed the explosion.

The audience were then brought to the explosion site to see the debris.

Some 16 journalists from five countries -- China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia, as well as at least three from the DPRK, mainly from TV broadcasters, witnessed the explosion.

They had been told that no press briefings by DPRK officials were to be offered on the spot. They were also asked not to shoot anything else except the explosion of the cooling tower.

The DPRK Thursday submitted the long-delayed account of its nuclear inventory to China, the chair of the six-party talks.

The United States accordingly announced the same day that it may remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in August if the country meets all its obligations under the six-party talks.

On July 15, 2007, the DPRK shut down and sealed the key nuclear facility at Yongbyon. DPRK workers began to disable the plant under U.S. technical supervision a few months later.

However, disagreement over the DPRK's declaration, which was due by the end of last year, held up the disablement process.

An image of Yongbyon nuclear center of DPRK is shown in this file photo dated Sept. 11, 2005. (Xinhua Photo)
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