N Korea resumes nuclear work

North Korea has started to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods at a nuclear facility, its foreign ministry has said.The announcement on Saturday came hours after a UN Security Council committee placed three North Korean companies on a UN blacklist for aiding the country's missile and nuclear programmes.KCNA, North Korea's official news agency, quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying: "The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the foreign ministry statement dated April 14."This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defence in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces."The reclusive state struck a deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US in 2007 to disable its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant in exchange for aid and an end to its international ostracism.But it has since expelled UN and US nuclear inspectors at Yongbyon, about 100km north of the capital, Pyongyang, who had been overseeing steps to put the plant out of operation for at least a year.