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New fears on Korean nuclear weapons

By Shane Green in Tokyo and Mark Riley in Seoul and agencies
July 21 2003

North Korean leader Kim Jong II.

North Korea may be operating a secret second nuclear plant that is making plutonium to build nuclear weapons.

The likelihood of a secret plant, possibly dug into the mountains, arose when sensors on the border with North Korea detected a gas that is produced when reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium.

The alarm was raised when it became clear that the gas did not appear to be coming from the known Yongbyon nuclear plant.

United States officials say the evidence of a second nuclear plant is not yet conclusive. But if such a plant is operating, it confirms North Korea is well advanced in building a nuclear arsenal.

The possibility of a second, secret plant would seem to rule out a scenario once considered by the Clinton administration - a "surgical" strike by the US against the North's nuclear weapons-producing capability.

Chinese intelligence has reportedly determined that North Korea has reprocessed enough plutonium to make at least one bomb, and has all the components and triggering devices to build a nuclear-tipped missile.

The news seemed to explain China's urgent intervention in the crisis last week, and its attempt to host talks between the US and North Korea.

But a sticking point may be Washington's insistence that South Korea and Japan be included. North Korea remains hostile towards its one-time colonial ruler, Japan.

But Tokyo is determined to be a player, with the Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, saying after weekend talks with the visiting British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, that Japan's involvement was "vital". Mr Blair also strongly backed Japan's stance.

Mr Blair, who arrived in Seoul yesterday for talks with the South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, said North Korea's nuclear program posed a "real danger".

Washington is trying to check the claim North Korea has reprocessed all of the 8000 spent fuel rods stored at the Yongbyon reactor - able to produce enough plutonium for at least six bombs.

News of the possible second plant was first reported in The New York Times yesterday.

South Korea has also reported the build-up of North Korean artillery and missiles. The Defence Ministry said North Korea had "increased the threat on South Korea's capital by moving forward 170mm and 240mm long-range artillery" closer to the demilitarised zone that divides the two Koreas. It did not say when the movement occurred.

The new evidence of North Korea's nuclear capabilities emerged as the Prime Minister, John Howard, returned from Seoul last night at the end of a three-nation tour of the region.

The trip was one of the most important of Mr Howard's prime ministership, as Australia strives for a position on the crisis that balances its obligations in the region with its increasingly close relationship with the US.

Mr Roh and Mr Koizumi both impressed upon Mr Howard the need to seek a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the stand-off.

 Cosima Marriner writes from Canberra: The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, is still holding out hope that Chinese diplomatic intervention will defuse the tensions escalating over North Korea's nuclear weapons.

Mr Downer told Channel Nine yesterday that achieving a diplomatic resolution to the crisis was "very dependent on China".

"I think we have to accept that the country that has the greatest leverage over North Korea is China," he said.




- New fears on Korean nuclear weapons
- Going ballistic
- DMZ still draws the daytrippers

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