Free fuel shipments to Iraq, which account for 30 percent of North Korea's energy consumption, will be suspended as of next month. The fuel shipments, costing about $80 million (for 500,000 tons of fuel oil.) The oil shipments were to compensate North Korea for stopping work on nuclear power plants. Eventually, South Korea and Japan are to build nuclear power plants that cannot produce weapons grade nuclear material as a byproduct. But North Korea has stalled the power plant construction with more new demands.