Putting out

Pyongyang, North Korea

After months of playing coy, North Korea has finally shut down its military nuclear reactor, U.N. inspectors confirmed this week. North Korea agreed last February to shut the weapons-making plutonium reactor in exchange for money and oil, but it kept delaying, insisting that it hadn’t been paid. Shutting the reactor wasn’t even the hard part. Next, under the February accord, North Korea must permanently disable the reactor and show inspectors the full extent of its nuclear weapons, nuclear processing plants, and any stored nuclear material. “I certainly have to anticipate there will be problems,” said U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill, “because I never expected it would take until July to get this first step done.”

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