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N. Korea's cooperation may undercut US intelligence: report
Washington (AFP) Nov 9, 2007 The government of North Korea is providing information that could prove that, contrary to US claims, the communist country never intended to produce highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported on its website Friday. Citing unnamed US and South Korean officials, the newspaper said the evidence is undermining a key US intelligence finding made five years ago and used in public statements by President George W. Bush. The North Korean government has granted US experts access to equipment and documents to make its case, in preparation for declaring the extent of its nuclear activities before the end of the year, the report said. North Korean officials hope the United States will simultaneously lift sanctions against Pyongyang when the declaration is made, according to the paper. If North Korea successfully demonstrates that US accusations about the uranium-enrichment program are wrong, it will be a blow to US intelligence and the Bush administration's credibility, The Post said. The US intelligence community's credibility has already been undercut by claims that Iraq was secretly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, a charge proved to be wrong following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US charges of a large-scale uranium program in North Korea led to the collapse of a 1994 agreement that had frozen a North Korean reactor that produced a different nuclear substance -- plutonium, the report said. The move freed North Korea to use the plutonium route toward gathering the material needed for a nuclear weapon. Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test last year, detonating a plutonium-based device. "This is now in the process of being clarified," The Post quotes a senior South Korean official as saying. "The North Koreans are now ready to prove that they did not intend to make a uranium-enrichment program by importing some materials." US intelligence first concluded in July 2002 that North Korea had embarked on a large-scale program to produce highly enriched uranium for use in weapons, the paper noted. "We discovered that, contrary to an agreement they had with the United States, they're enriching uranium, with a desire of developing a weapon," President Bush said in a November 2002 news conference. After the administration accused Pyongyang of violating the 1994 agreement struck to freeze its plutonium facilities, North Korea ejected UN inspectors from the country and restarted its plutonium reactor, The Post recalled. Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
US says NKorea very helpful in nuclear disablement
Seoul (AFP) Nov 6, 2007US experts supervising the disabling of North Korea's nuclear plants have made a good start and the North has been very cooperative, their team leader said Tuesday. |
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