North Korea Suspends Nuclear Moratorium

Already the focus of nations worried about the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons, North Korea announced Thursday that it will resume development of nuclear power facilities to meet its energy needs. The communist country and the United States had agreed in 1994 that if North Korea stopped its nuclear programs, the US would supply it with enough oil to meet its needs until a safer nuclear power system could be developed with international assistance. But the US ceased oil shipments last week after North Korea admitted it had been working on another nuclear program of its own. As this report in the Chosun Ilbo reveals, South Korea is feeling the heat from the US-North Korea rift, and its intelligence and military are scrambling to monitor the North's nuclear facilities even more carefully. – YaleGlobal