Yesterday's announcement of the United States lifting sanctions against North Korea has resulted in the television airing of the destruction of a water cooling tower at the Yongbyon facility.
Three minutes after a warning flare was fired the tower came down in a cloud of smoke.
The United States Department officials and observers for the International Atomic Energy Agency were on hand about 1,000 yards from the site.
According to a
CNN report the time it will take to rebuild such a tower is at least a year. This is a huge step in disablement.
"This is a critical piece of equipment for the nuclear reactor," said analyst John Wolfsthal, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has been following North Korea since the 1980s. "Without this facility, the reactor can't operate and can't produce more plutonium for weapons."
North Korea has been under watchful eyes concerning their nuclear weapons program. On Thursday they handed over to China a 60 page declaration written in English of the Yongbyon's plutonium production dating back to 1988.
The document confirms that there was enough plutonium made to service about seven nuclear bombs.
Bush had stated on Thursday that these actions would result of a lifting of sanctions and removing North Korea from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism.
"The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang," Bush said. "We remain deeply concerned about North Korea's human rights abuses, uranium enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programs and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and its neighbors."
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