SEOUL—North Korea may be hoping to squeeze concessions from the international community by refusing to let inspectors remove samples from a plutonium-producing nuclear plant, the South's foreign minister said on Thursday.
North Korea said on Wednesday that the issue infringed on its sovereignty and was not part of a disarmament-for-aid deal reached with five countries, including the United States and China.
"If we consider North Korea's clear negotiation pattern, its strategy has always been to create a crisis before resolving something, and trying to use that point to secure further concessions," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told a seminar.
North Korea reached a deal last month to resume disabling its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant and allow in inspectors to verify claims it made about its atomic arms program after the United States removed it from a terrorism blacklist and rolled back trade sanctions.
"Sampling is a core part of verification, and it is understood that scientific procedures means sampling," Yu said.
The United States estimates the North has produced about 50 kg (110 lbs) of plutonium, enough for six to eight nuclear bombs.
In Washington on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said North Korea was obligated by "understandings" reached last month to allow such sampling.
He would not confirm that North Korea was barring experts from removing samples from Yongbyon.
However, an October 11 U.S. fact sheet on the understandings does not specifically state that samples may be removed from the country. It says the two sides agreed "on the use of scientific procedures, including sampling and forensic activities."
Yu said the South will try to contact the North on Thursday about the nuclear deal and threats its impoverished neighbor made.
North Korea lashed out at the wealthy South on Wednesday and said it would close its land border from next month, largely putting a stop to the few exchanges that exist between the states divided since the Cold War.
The move follows growing anger in Pyongyang at the hard-line approach of the South's conservative government, which said it was cutting what once had been a steady flow of unconditional aid and instead would tie handout to progress Pyongyang makes in ending its nuclear arms program.
The North also said it cut phone lines at the Panmunjom truce village set up inside the Demilitarized Zone buffer that has divided the states since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire.
The move is largely symbolic because U.S. and South Korean troops on one side of the border can simply shout messages to North Korean troops who are well within ear shot.
