South Korea says North not restarting nuclear disablement yet

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea has not seen signs of North Korea restarting work to take apart its nuclear plant as Pyongyang pledged to do at the weekend, a government official said on Monday, but Seoul could send aid once that work begins.

North Korea said on Sunday it would resume disabling its plutonium-producing nuclear plant and allow in inspectors in response to a U.S. decision a day earlier to remove it from a terrorism blacklist and save a crumbling disarmament deal.

"Such (disablement) moves have not been detected yet," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said at a news briefing.

South Korea had planned to send 3,000 tonnes of steel in September to North Korea for meeting previous goals set in the nuclear deal it also reached with China, Japan, Russia and the United States. It delayed the shipment when the North last month said it was restoring its plutonium-producing Yongbyon plant in anger at not being dropped from the U.S. terrorism list.

South Korea has not decided when it will send the steel aid but the shipment would likely be timed to coincide with North Korea returning to operations to take apart Yongbyon, Yonhap news agency quoted multiple sources as saying.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said the government "may consider the issue of adjusting its position on various projects," and that "food aid or steel aid are within the range of consideration."

As a part of the disarmament-for-aid deal, North Korea began receiving 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil, or aid of equal value such as steel, when it froze operations at Yongbyon last year and allowed in nuclear inspectors.

The North was to be removed from the U.S. blacklist once it provided a full accounting of its nuclear programmes and allowed for a system to check its claims.