DPRK's plutonium production should not be dramatized: Russian ministry

MOSCOW, Nov. 6 -- The reprocessing of spent nuclear rods by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should not be dramatized, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Tuesday that the work of reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear rods, a key step to increase its nuclear arsenal, had been completed at the end of August in Yongbyon.

Andrei Nesterenko told a briefing on Friday that the reports "can hardly be described as a step that would help create a favorable atmosphere for the beginning of talks."

However, "we would like to ask you not to dramatize this fact because these measures by Pyongyang does not add anything new to the situation," said the spokesman as cited by news agencies.

According to the KCNA, the reprocessing was part of efforts to "restore the Yongbyon nuclear facilities to their original state" in response to U.N. sanctions applied after the DPRK conducted a rocket launch and a second nuclear testing this spring.

The DPRK shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility in 2007 under a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal. In April, it quit the six-party talks and announced it was resuming the reprocessing of plutonium from spent fuel rods at the reactor there.

Pyongyang has expressed willingness to return to the six-party talks but only if it first holds satisfactory talks with Washington.

Nesterenko reiterated at the briefing Russia's "positive attitude to any form of contact addressing the nuclear problem of the Korean peninsula."

He also voiced confidence that Pyongyang and Washington would manage to find a "common denominator" in the near future.