North Korea refuels reactor

North Korea has begun moving fresh fuel to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the latest indication that it is resuming its nuclear weapons programme in the face of intense international opposition, the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday.

The agency has picked up signs of fuel movements since Tuesday, it said. South Korean officials said they had also heard word of people moving freely in and out of the supposedly dormant reactor in violation of UN rules.

The latest moves raised the stakes in an international crisis in which the North Koreans have already accused the United States of "pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war" and have warned of an "uncontrollable catastrophe" if Washington refuses to negotiate on North Korea's terms to resume shipments of fuel oil and other day-to-day essentials.

After days of intense diplomatic manoeuvring, a Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexander Losyukov, urged the North Koreans not to abandon a 1994 agreement whereby its nuclear weapons programme was put on hold and the country's leaders agreed to work with the agency.

The brinkmanship reached new heights earlier this week after the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, apparently rejected the path to negotiation and said the US was capable of fighting, and winning, two large-scale wars at once.