AP Interview: UN nuke chief concerned about Iran

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N's top nuclear official expressed concern Tuesday that Iran may be secretly continuing work on nuclear weapons while his agency is tied up in protracted negotiations with the country on restarting an investigation into past suspected research and development of such arms.

The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency headYukiya Amano are bound to resonate with Israel and Western nations, which assert Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capacity even though it insists its atomic activities are transparent and peaceful.

At the same time, critics question the objectivity of the intelligence such assessments are based on, noting most comes from the United States and Israel, Iran's greatest detractors. They say that if the information cannot be vetted publicly it should at least be shared with Tehran so that the Islamic Republic can see the evidence used to cast suspicion upon it.

Iran denies any secret weapons work — it says its nuclear program is primarily for medical and energy purposes — and skeptics note that even the United States said in 2007 that Tehran had suspended all meaningful weapons development by 2003.

Since then, however, IAEA reports have listed suspicions of tests and experiments past that date. Britain, France, Germany and Israel have also said that such work continued beyond 2003. While the United States has not publicly revised its 2007 intelligence assessment, its information remains a mainstay of IAEA assessments such as the one made by Amano on Tuesday.

"We do not know for sure, but we have information indicating that Iran was engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosive devices in the past and now," he told The Associated Press in what appeared to be his most specific assertion that such activities are continuing into the present.

While not going into detail , Amano said the IAEA's information was "cross checked ... so we have concerns."

Iran has dismissed the intelligence seen by the agency as faked and has demanded access to it. On Tuesday, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief IAEA delegate, cut short a telephone call from the AP seeking reaction.

Asked to comment on Amano's remarks, nuclear scientist Yousaf Butt of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, who frequently questions how seriously the IAEA's information should be taken without outside scrutiny, said Tehran "should be presented with any such evidence so it can respond to it."

Amano spoke three days ahead of a renewed round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers in Kazakhstan that are meant to reconcile the two sides' widely differing demands.

Iran wants an end to punishing international sanctions imposed for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, while the international community is calling on Tehran to curb parts of its enrichment program most suited to providing material for nuclear warheads.

Both sides were cautiously hopeful that differences were slightly narrowed as they emerged from the previous negotiating session in February. Still, any progress at the talks this week will likely be no more than incremental, and as the negotiations drag on the IAEA's attempts to restart a probe into the suspected secret weapons work is on hold.

Like others previously, the last meeting between Iran and the IAEA on re-launching the investigation ended inconclusively after more than a year of occasional talks on the issue, with agency officials saying a pause was needed. Amano on Tuesday said his agency was now "ready to continue ... the dialogue" with Iran, even without expectations of progress.

Iran's alleged secret weapons work and its expanding uranium enrichment program are the two greatest issues of concern about Tehran's nuclear activities.

On Tuesday, Amano said there was "some possibility" that Iran may already be constructing additional sites to enrich uranium at locations unknown to the agency, based on an announcement by Tehran that they plan to build around 10 such additional facilities.

But he said the agency does not have specifics about whether work on such installations has actually started, with Iran not answering requests for "further information in this regard."

Feds send corrective order to Exxon after oil leak

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Federal pipeline safety officials on Tuesday issued a corrective action order to ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. after one of its pipelines ruptured last week in central Arkansas.

The order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration comes after ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipelineruptured Friday in the small city of Mayflower, about 25 miles northwest of Little Rock.

The order prevents ExxonMobil from restarting operations on the failed segment of the pipeline until the agency is satisfied with repairs and is confident that all immediate safety concerns have been addressed.

Investigators are still working to figure out what caused the pipeline to rupture, but the corrective action order says ExxonMobil reversed the system flow of the pipeline in 2006.

"A change in direction of flow can affect the hydraulic and stress demands on the pipeline," the order, dated Tuesday, says.

About 3,500 to 5,000 barrels of crude oil spilled after the pipeline ruptured, according to ExxonMobil estimates cited in the corrective action order. That oil spewed onto lawns and roadways and almost fouled nearby Lake Conway. No one was hurt, but the spill led authorities to evacuate more than 20 homes.

The pipeline, which runs from Patoka, Ill., to the Texas Gulf Coast, was originally built in 1947 and 1948, according to federal pipeline safety officials. It remains out of service for now. In order for that to change, ExxonMobil would need written approval from a federal pipeline safety official, according to the corrective action order.

ExxonMobil also has to submit a restart plan, complete testing and analysis about why the pipeline failed and jump through a number of other hoops under the order.

The order signed by Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for pipeline safety, says "continued operation of the Pegasus Pipeline would be hazardous to life, property, and the environment."

The federal agency's order comes as Arkansas' attorney general promised a state investigation into the cause and impact of the spill and other officials say they plan to ask Exxon to move the Pegasus pipeline to protect drinking water.

"There are many questions and concerns remaining as to the long-term impacts, environmental or otherwise, from this spill," Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel wrote to ExxonMobil executives Tuesday. He also asked ExxonMobil to preserve records pending his investigation.

The company said it will cooperate with McDaniel's office. ExxonMobil spokesman Alan T. Jeffers said Tuesday evening that the company is reviewing the corrective action order, but declined to comment further.

Jeffers also said the company had no comment after a Central Arkansas Water official said the water system plans to formally request that ExxonMobil relocate the Pegasus pipeline outside the area that drains into the main source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of customers in the region.

"We've been concerned about the presence of the pipeline in the (Lake Maumelle) Watershed for some time now," said John Tynan, Central Arkansas Water's watershed protection manager. "We've taken a number of steps to mitigate the risks that it poses, but obviously the only way to eliminate all risk is to remove the pipeline from the watershed."

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Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo contributed to this report.

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Nuclear board warns of Hanford tank explosion risk

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Underground tanks that hold a stew of toxic, radioactive waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site pose a possible risk of explosion, a nuclear safety board said in advance of confirmation hearings for the next leader of the Energy Department.

State and federal officials have long known that hydrogen gas could build up inside the tanks at theHanford Nuclear Reservation, leading to an explosion that would release radioactive material. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommended additional monitoring and ventilation of the tanks last fall, and federal officials were working to develop a plan to implement the recommendation.

The board expressed those concerns again Monday to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and had sought the board's perspective about cleanup at Hanford.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It spends billions of dollars to clean up the 586-square-mile site neighboring the Columbia River, the southern border between Washington and Oregon and the Pacific Northwest's largest waterway.

Federal officials have said six underground tanks at the site are leaking into the soil, threatening the groundwater, and technical problems have delayed construction of a plant to treat the waste for long-term safe disposal.

Those issues are likely to come up during confirmation hearings next week for Energy Secretary-nominee Ernest J. Moniz. The fears of explosion and contamination could give Washington and Oregon officials more clout as they push for cleanup of the World War II-era site.

Central to the cleanup is the removal of 56 million gallons of highly radioactive, toxic waste left from plutonium production from underground tanks. Many of the site's single-shell tanks, which have just one wall, have leaked in the past, and state and federal officials announced in February that six such tanks are leaking anew.

"The next Secretary of Energy - Dr. Moniz - needs to understand that a major part of his job is going to be to get the Hanford cleanup back on track, and I plan to stress that at his confirmation hearing next week," Wyden said in a statement Tuesday.

The nuclear safety board warned about the risk of explosion to Wyden, who wanted comment on the safety and operation of Hanford's tanks, technical issues that have been raised about the design of a plant to treat the waste in those tanks, and Hanford's overall safety culture.

In addition to the leaks, the board noted concerns about the potential for hydrogen gas buildup within a tank, in particular those with a double wall, which contain deadly waste that was previously pumped out of the leaking single-shell tanks.

"All the double-shell tanks contain waste that continuously generates some flammable gas," the board said. "This gas will eventually reach flammable conditions if adequate ventilation is not provided."

All of the tanks are actively ventilated, which means they have blowers and fans to prevent a buildup of hydrogen gas, and those systems are monitored to ensure they are operating as intended, Energy Department spokeswoman Carrie Meyer said.

For even greater safety, she said, the agency implemented an improved monitoring system in February.

"DOE is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of Hanford's underground tanks," Meyer said.

The board also noted technical challenges with the waste treatment plant, which is being built to encase the waste in glasslike logs for long-term disposal. Those challenges must be resolved before parts of the plant can be completed, the board said.

The federal government spends about $2 billion annually on Hanford cleanup — roughly one-third of its entire budget for nuclear cleanup nationally. About $690 million of that goes toward design and construction of the plant. Design of the plant, last estimated at more than $12.3 billion, is 85 percent complete, while construction is more than 50 percent complete.

The problems identified by the board show that the plant schedule will be delayed further and the cost will keep rising, Wyden said, adding: "There is a real question as to whether the plant, as currently designed, will work at all."

North Korea pressures South by halting entry to industrial zone

South Korean vehicles carrying South Korean employees working at the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), head toward South Korea's CIQ (Customs, Immigration and Quarantine) from KIC, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul, April 3, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Truck drivers talk between South Korean trucks turning back to South Korea's CIQ (Customs, Immigration and Quarantine) after they were banned from entering the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul, April 3, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

By Ju-min Park

PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea closed access to a joint factory zone with South Korea on Wednesday, officials said, putting at risk $2 billion a year in trade that is vital for an impoverished state with a huge army, nuclear ambitions and a hungry population.

The move marked an escalation in North Korea's months-long standoff with South Korea and its ally Washington. On Tuesday,Pyongyang said it would restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, drawing criticism from the international community, including China, its major benefactor and diplomatic friend.

In Beijing, China's deputy foreign minister met ambassadors from the United States and both Koreas to express "serious concern" about the Korean peninsula, China's Foreign Ministry said, in a sign China is increasingly worried about events spinning out of control. The ministry said the meetings with Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui took place on Tuesday.

South Korea demanded Pyongyang allow access to the Kaesong Industrial Park, which lies just inside North Korea.

It said North Korea would allow the roughly 800 South Korean factory managers and workers in the zone to return home, but added that only 36 had opted to do so on Wednesday, indicating factories were still operating.

Those remaining in the zone were there by choice but could run out of food because all supplies needed to be trucked in from South Korea, said the Unification Ministry, which handles Seoul's matters with North Korea.

"If this issue is prolonged, the government is aware of such a situation materializing," ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk told reporters when asked about food shortages.

The industrial park has not formally stopped operations since it was inaugurated in 2000 as part of efforts to improve ties between the two Koreas. It houses 123 companies and employs 50,000 North Koreans making cheap goods such as clothing.

Some South Korean experts said the North's move might be temporary given the park is a financial lifeline to Pyongyang.

At the South Korean border city of Paju, there was a sense of foreboding that Kaesong would be closed permanently, dealing a death blow to the one remaining example of cooperation between the two Koreas.

"Trust between North and South will fall apart, as well as the trust we have with our buyers. We're going to end up taking the damage from this," Lee Eun-haeng, who runs an apparel firm in Kaesong, told Reuters on the southern side of the border.

Lee's business employs 600 North Koreans who earn $130 on average a month.

The zone has major symbolic value for both North and South Korea. It generates cash for the North and acts as beacon for the economic prosperity of the South inside the grim, centrally planned North Korean economy where jobs are scarce.

"The North Korean workers there are said to have 300,000 family members," said Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean military official who defected to the South in 1979.

"Does electricity go off in the Kaesong factories at any time? No. But North Korean factories see that happen to their facilities all the time."

WAR OF WORDS

North Korea's latest war of words with Seoul and Washington ratcheted up when the United Nations imposed fresh sanctions on the country for its February 12 nuclear test. At the same time, South Korea and the United States have been staging annual war games, which Pyongyang claims are a prelude to an invasion. Those exercises run throughout April.

Despite the rhetoric and the cutting of telephone hot lines to the South, Pyongyang has not taken any military action and shows no sign of preparing its 1.2 million strong armed forces for war, Washington says.

That would indicate much of the vitriol is intended for domestic consumption to bolster young leader Kim Jong-un ahead of celebrations marking the anniversary of the birthday of Kim Il-sung, the state's founder and the younger Kim's grandfather, on April 15.

Kim has also used the rising tensions to cement his grip on power by appointing a key ally of his uncle and aunt as the country's prime minister.

"At least until the end of April, when drills end, the North is likely to keep up the tensions as it had done in previous years," said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute think tank in Seoul.

The 30-year old Kim was showing the North could stand up to the United States and to South Korea's new President Park Geun-hye, who took office just a week after the nuclear test, the country's third, said the defector Ahn.

"North Korea doesn't have the economic power that South Korea has but it's stressing its nuclear abilities to show that it can pull equal weight," he said.

News of the Kaesong closure initially hurt South Korean financial markets. The won currency was trading at a six and a half-month low in early trade but later recovered.

North Korea is heavily reliant on Kaesong and China. Its powerful neighbor accounts for almost $6 billion in trade, according to estimates from Seoul.

One South Korean worker who travels in and out of the zone each day said North Koreans there had become less friendly as tensions had risen in the past month.

"They used to smile at my jokes or the soldiers at customs liked to chit chat. They really liked South Korean duty-free cigarettes but this week it all looks different," said Jang Sun-woo.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Jack Kim in Seoul and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by David Chance and Dean Yates)

Article: China expresses "serious concern" over Korean peninsula

Article: South Korea considering options if safety threatened in Kaesong: Yonhap

Article: U.N. chief urges talks in North Korea crisis

Serbia, Kosovo talks fail to reach accord

A Kosovo Albanian man passes by Italian Carabinieri stationed on the main bridge that separates the ethnically divided northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo are negotiating Tuesday on one of the most important issues dividing them, as Serbia strains to meet conditions for eventual membership in the European Union. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Marathon EU-mediated talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have broken up without a deal, the participants said early Wednesday.

The talks, which took place in Brussels, were an attempt to resolve one of the most difficult issues dividing the two sides — the status of Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, an EU official said. The talks broke up early Wednesday.

Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008. While many countries have recognized it as an independent country, Serbia has not.

Neither have many ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo, who reject the authority of the government in Pristina, the Kosovo capital.

Serbia is required to normalize relations with its neighbors if it wants ultimately to join the European Union.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, speaking after midnight following a meeting of about 13 hours, said through a translator that Kosovo had put forward proposals in line with its laws and constitution — proposals that he said would have integrated all citizens, including ethnic Serbs, into the life of Kosovo.

But he said the proposals were met with "hesitation" on the Serbian side. He said the Serbian officials had decided to "reflect" and he still hoped an agreement could be reached next week.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic left without speaking in English, though he said no agreement had been reached, according to journalists who spoke Serbo-Croatian.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a written statement that the meeting — the eighth face-to-face meeting between the two prime ministers, all under EU mediation — was the last formal meeting she would call between the parties.

"They will now both go back and consult with their colleagues in their capitals and will let me know in the next few days of their decision," the statement said. "I wish them a good journey home and every possible success in reaching a conclusion."

Any agreement would be a landmark for the region, and a major step toward peace in the Balkans, which were riven in the 1990s by bloody wars associated with the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Although Kosovo has won broad international acceptance of its independence, the ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo — up to 50,000 people in and around the divided city of Mitrovica — have rejected the authority of the government in Pristina, the Kosovo capital. They have created so-called parallel institutions, including hospitals and schools, all financed and supported from the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Many Serbs in Kosovo's north had said that any agreement that separated them from Serbia would not be acceptable.

"No way will we go with the Pristina authorities," said Tomislav Kostic, a resident of Mitrovica. "Only with the state of Serbia and that's it."

In the southern part of Mitrovica, ethnic Albanian Adem Mripa said the territory was part of Kosovo. He demanded reciprocity for the Albanian minority in Serbia's south.

"If they want autonomy here they should give it to Albanians in the south, to the Hungarian and Bosnian (minorities), Mripa said. "I am for talks, but talks that are forward-looking and visionary and peaceful."

In a sign of the underlying tensions, Kosovo police said unknown assailants threw a fire bomb Tuesday into the offices of moderate Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic in the Serb-run part of the country. No one was in the office when the attack was launched, minutes before midnight Monday. Ivanovic backs Serbia's claim over Kosovo, but many radical Serbs think that he might work with the ethnic Albanian authorities in Pristina.

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Associated Press videojournalist Sylvain Plazy in Brussels, and AP writers Radul Radovanovic and Nebi Qena in Mitrovica, Kosovo, contributed to this report. Don Melvin can be reached at https://twitter.com/Don_Melvin