By Associated Press

December 25, 2002, 7:51 PM EST

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has begun moving fresh fuel rods into a reactor, another step in reactivating nuclear facilities that could produce weapons, a South Korean news agency said Thursday.

The Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified South Korean government official, said the communist North began moving fuel rods into the five-megawatt reactor at its main nuclear center in Yongbyon, 50 miles north of its capital, Pyongyang.

In a confrontation with the United States, North Korea on Dec. 12 decided to restart its frozen nuclear facilities and then removed U.N. monitoring seals and cameras form the reactor and three other key nuclear facilities.

"We've confirmed through IAEA that North Korea began moving fuel rods into the reactor on Wednesday," Yonhap quoted its source as saying.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency has three inspectors staying in North Korea eye-checking the activities of North Koreans. The number of inspectors was increased from two to three this week.

In the Yonhap report, the South Korean official did not say whether North Korea has actually begun loading the fuel inside the Soviet-designed reactor core, which can produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The official said it was unknown how many fuel rods have been moved so far, adding that the move was expected to continue for a while.

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2002