The innovative noodle couldn't have come at a better time, given North Korea's recent decision to halt the dismantling of its nuclear program, a move that surely will not ingratiate the regime to foreign donors of food aid. North Korea announced today that it stopped the demolition of its Yongbyon plutonium reactor on August 14. The regime had committed to taking it offline as part of an agreement brokered during six-party (North Korea, United States, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia) talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program. In exchange, the Bush administration promised to provide energy aid in the form of fuel oil, lift economic sanctions, and remove North Korea from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

The latter is at the center of the latest spat. In June, North Korea submitted to China a 60-page, English-language accounting of its nuclear activities at Yongbyon dating back to 1986, including details of the process that ultimately yielded enough fissile material for seven nuclear bombs. But the agreement stipulated that, before North Korea would receive any relief, it had to also submit to inspections of facilities and interviews of its nuclear scientists. The United States insists that these inspections be unannounced, along the lines how nuclear inspectors did their work in Iraq prior to the invasion. To this, North Korea now says no way. "The U.S. is gravely mistaken if it thinks it can make a house search in the DPRK as it pleases just as it did in Iraq," a regime spokesman said today, adding that the US demand is "an outright violation of the agreement."

Both sides say that talks will continue.

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Ryuugakusei.