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N Korea making more nuclear weapons

July 14 2003

North Korea has told the United States it has completed reprocessing spent fuel rods to extract plutonium for nuclear weapons, reports said today, but Washington expressed doubt over the claim.

UN-based North Korean envoys confirmed at talks with US officials last week in New York that the reprocessing operation was completed on June 30, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

It quoted Chang Sung-Min, a former South Korean ruling party parliamentarian, as saying the informal meeting was attended by North Korea's UN Representative Park Gil-Yon and US State Department official Jack Pritchard.

In Washington, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was unclear whether North Korea's claim was true.

"They have told us they have nuclear weapons, they have also made assertions with respect to the pace at which they're reprocessing," he told the NBC network.

"Some people believe what they are saying, other people don't belive what they are saying."

According to Yonhap, Chang reportedly said North Korean envoys disclosed Pyongyang's plan to extract more plutonium from a five megawatt reactor and to resume the construction of new reactors at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

The envoys also noted that Pyongyang would use the reprocessed material as "nuclear deterrents," Chang was quoted as saying.

South Korean officials declined to confirm the report.

"It is not proper for us to comment on any contact between the United States and North Korea," a foreign ministry statement said.

Yonhap's report followed claims last week by South Korea's spy chief Ko Young-Koo that the Stalinist North had carried out 70 high explosive tests linked to nuclear weapons development.

Ko also said the North had begun reprocessing spent fuel rods in a program that could yield enough plutonium for half a dozen atomic bombs within months.

North Korea has insisted the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods at a nuclear reactor in Yongbyon was under way but US and South Korean officials have said until now that they were unable to confirm the claim.

US and South Korean officials say North Korea may have one or two nuclear bombs and believe reprocessing would yield enough plutonium for around six more.

North Korea has never tested a nuclear device, but indicated last month that it possessed atomic weapons when it said in a foreign ministry statement that it intended to "build up its nuclear deterrent."

Japan's Kyodo news agency said yesterday that the White House received fresh intelligence indicating the reprocessing of fuel rods in Yongbyon.

Krypton 85 has been detected in air samples from Yongbyon's vicinity, according to Kyodo. Krypton 85 is released into the atmosphere when spent fuel rods are reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October when Washington said the North Koreans had admitted running a nuclear program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord.

The pact became almost defunct after North Korea expelled UN nuclear inspectors and began to revive its mothballed nuclear plants to protest against US halt to fuel oil supply for the energy-starved state.

The United States says the crisis should be resolved through negotiations but is insisting on a multilateral approach while North Korea wants one-on-one talks with Washington.

The United States and North Korea held talks, also attended by China as a host, in Beijing in April to discuss the nuclear crisis but failed to agree on a follow-up meeting.




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