N. Korea claims progress in enriched uranium production

North Korea said Wednesday it is accelerating the construction of a light-water nuclear reactor and its enriched uranium production, rejecting demands by the US and its allies to immediately suspend the activities."The construction of experimental light-water reactor and the low enriched uranium for the provision of raw materials are progressing apace," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency."The right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy is an issue vital for the sovereignty and development of the DPRK and, therefore, neither concession nor compromise should be allowed," the spokesman said.DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Uranium, when highly enriched, can become weapons grade, which would provide the North Korean regime with a second way of building atomic bombs in addition to using plutonium.The announcement could complicate efforts to restart the six-party talks on the North Korea's nuclear programs as the US, South Korea and Japan want North Korea to demonstrate its denuclearization commitment before the stalled talks can be resumed.The spokesman rejected such demands, saying, "The US and its allies groundlessly took issue with the DPRK's just nuclear activities for peaceful purposes, deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations." The six-way talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US have been stalled since April 2009 after the North quit the process in the wake of UN Security Council sanctions for its missile test."The DPRK is ready to resume the six-party talks without preconditions and implement the joint statement in a phased manner on the principle of simultaneous actions," the statement said.Last year, North Korea alarmed the world by unveiling what it claims is a sophisticated uranium enrichment facility.