Scientist says he saw North Korean nukes
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| Tue, 04-13-2004 - 11:24am |
Scientist says he saw North Korean nukes
'Father of Pakistani bomb' tells of visit to a secret plant
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
By DAVID E. SANGER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology around the world, has told his interrogators that during a trip to North Korea five years ago he was taken to a secret underground nuclear plant and shown what he described as three nuclear devices, according to Asian and U.S. officials who have been briefed by the Pakistanis.
If Khan's report is true, this would mark the first time that any foreigner has reported seeing North Korean nuclear weapons. Past CIA assessments of North Korea's nuclear capability have been based on knowledge of its plutonium production and assessments that North Korea had the technical ability to turn plutonium into weapons.
Khan, known as the father of the Pakistani bomb, said he was allowed to inspect the weapons briefly, according to the account that Pakistan has begun to provide in classified briefings to nations within reach of North Korea's missiles.
U.S. intelligence officials caution that they cannot say whether Khan had the time, expertise or equipment to verify the claims. But they note that the number of plutonium weapons roughly accords with previous CIA estimates that North Korea had one or two weapons and the ability to produce more.
White House officials declined to discuss the intelligence reports, saying through a spokesman that the subject was "too sensitive." But Vice President Dick Cheney was fully briefed on Khan's assertions before he left for Asia over the weekend, and he is expected to cite the intelligence to China's leaders today to press the point that negotiations over disarming North Korea are going too slowly, administration officials said.
They expect him to argue that the Bush administration is losing patience and may seek stronger action including U.N. sanctions.
Khan also told Pakistani officials he began dealing with North Korea on the sale of equipment for a second way of producing nuclear weapons -- through the enrichment of uranium, as opposed to plutonium -- as early as the late 1980s.
But he said he did not begin major shipments to the North until the late 1990s, after the country's plutonium program was "frozen" under an agreement with the United States. North Korea has since renounced that agreement.
According to officials who have reviewed the intelligence reports from Pakistan, Khan admitted shipping to North Korea both the designs for the centrifuges used to enrich uranium and a small number of complete centrifuges. He also provided a "shopping list" of equipment the North needed to produce thousands of the machines.
"We think they've pretty much bought everything on the list, with the possible exception of a few components," said one U.S. official, adding that the Bush administration is still uncertain exactly where the uranium weapons program is located, or whether it has begun production of the fuel.
U.S. officials have known about the Pakistani reports for at least three or four weeks, Asian and U.S. officials say. But they have kept them quiet, and Bush, who once labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil," has not mentioned the country in public for weeks. Many Democrats have charged that Bush is trying to play down the issue during an election year, especially because the North may be building more weapons as talks drag on.
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>"U.S. officials have known about the Pakistani reports for at least three or four weeks, Asian and U.S. officials say. But they have kept them quiet, and Bush, who once labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil," has not mentioned the country in public for weeks."
I'd noticed
Could this be the recent sudden interest in NK?
Cheney to Press Case on North Korea in China.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4816055&pageNumber=1
Vice President Dick Cheney, armed with new evidence over North Korea's weapons capabilities, will press China Wednesday to help jump-start talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
Washington points to intelligence from A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's scientist believed to have sold nuclear technology to North Korea as well as Libya and Iran, as third-party confirmation that Pyongyang probably already has nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials say they hope the information will end what they see as lingering Chinese doubts.
The New York Times said Khan told Pakistani interrogators he saw three nuclear devices during a trip to North Korea five years ago.
Economic issues will also be on the agenda when Cheney meets Premier Wen Jiabao. Washington wants Beijing to revalue its yuan currency and open up its markets.
Cheney will also meet President Hu Jintao and Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, who remains military chief, before flying to Shanghai.
In his first closed-door meeting after arriving from Tokyo Tuesday, Cheney reassured Chinese leaders that the United States did not support Taiwan's independence.
Washington is worried by China's buildup of ballistic missiles capable of striking Taiwan, and Cheney was expected to raise the issue when talks resume Wednesday.
China, in turn, was pressing the United States to halt arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a rogue province.
Cheney raised the thorny issue of Taiwan during his first meeting -- with Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong.
Violence in Iraq was expected to loom large over Cheney's visit to China, as it did in Japan. He will also try to help efforts to win a consensus on a U.N. role in Iraq after a June 30 transfer of sovereignty.
A senior U.S. official traveling with Cheney called North Korea a "special problem" because, with the help of Khan, it has developed plutonium and the capacity to enrich uranium.
"This is a very important issue for us to continue to focus on," the official said.
U.S. officials have been frustrated in the past by what they see as Chinese skepticism of U.S. intelligence on North Korea.
They hope Khan's remarks will convince Beijing of the issue's urgency.
But they concede there is little chance of a breakthrough before the November U.S. election, let alone on Cheney's visit.
On the economy, Washington wants Beijing to drop proposed regulations restricting imports of wireless computers and other hi-tech products, moves it says would violate world trade rules.
Cheney is also expected to press Wen to address U.S. concern over tax policies which the United States says represent an unfair barrier to semiconductor imports. Washington has filed a related complaint against China in the World Trade Organization.
The last thing I remember being reported was about a month or so ago, and I thought that the negotiation process was going fairly well, but suddenly just stopped.
Do you know any more of what happened?
I can only guess that it was pleasantries until the US envoy said that North Korea would have to get rid of their nuclear program, to which I am sure Kim Jung Il is not in a hurry to do.
In that avenue, I believe that the course of action is diplomatic, especially if China gets involved. In that arena it would probably work the best, although I am sure that the Mossad would love to send another team of special forces into NK to deal with the nuclear threat the same as they did in Iraq with the nuclear power plant. This could be a dangerous thing.
I know.
The funny thing was as I was watching the President's news conference last night, I also saw on the running news banner beneath that apparently Cheney has gone back to China to ask them for more assistance with NK and the nuclear program.
It appears that this administration wants to thoroughly see the diplomatic process through to the end before even considering any other alternatives. I think that the UN should also be more involved as well.
I agree that any military action against NK would be extremely disasterous and may lead them to use any nuclear weapons they have, either against SK or Taiwan.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=A%20Wary%20Ally
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 · Last updated 7:23 a.m. PT
U.S.-S. Korea relations become touchier
By GEORGE GEDDA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- It was South Korea's biggest fear not long ago: Faced with a cross-border attack from North Korea, the United States would lack the will to come to the South's defense.
Nowadays, growing numbers of South Koreans worry that any crisis on the peninsula will result from an American provocation rather than aggression by their nuclear-armed neighbor.
The trend in sentiment is clear, and analysts see little chance for a reversal in South Korea's National Assembly elections Thursday.
Indeed, the major party most wary about Bush administration policies toward North Korea is expected to increase its strength in the assembly.
The changing South Korean mind-set was underscored last month in a report by the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif., think tank.
South Korean uncertainty about the future, the report said, "is heightened by a growing belief that tough U.S. policies toward Pyongyang constitute a threat that rivals the one from the North."
South Koreans, it said, are deeply ambivalent about the 37,000 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea.
"On the one hand, most South Koreans have said that U.S. forces are important to their security," the report said. "But on the other, they believe that the presence of U.S. forces may impede the pace of reunification or adversely affect other goals."
The study was based on South Korean public opinion data and on Rand's participation in two September 2003 opinion polls with the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper of Seoul and the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The study showed that older South Koreans are more pro-U.S. than the younger set, which has no memories of the American sacrifices of the Korean War.
Says Don Oberdorfer, an international studies specialist at Johns Hopkins University who wrote "The Two Koreas," about the peninsula's late 20th century history: "The younger generation has little, if any, fear of North Korea. The main fear is that a dangerous situation will develop not because of North Korea but because of the U.S."
The 1950-53 Korean War, in which more than 36,500 Americans died, began when North Korean troops poured across the 38th parallel dividing the two states. The truce stopped the fighting, but meetings at the truce line to reach a permanent peace continue.
South Koreans demonstrated their leeriness about the United States with the election of the dovish Kim Dae-jung as president in 1998. This drift was accelerated in December of 2002 when voters chose as president Roh Moo Hyun, who vowed not to kowtow to the United States.
The opposition-led National Assembly impeached and suspended Roh in March, which proved to be widely unpopular among voters. The impeachment is now in the courts, and Roh has said he will step down if his Uri Party fares poorly Thursday. Polls indicate that outcome is unlikely.
The United States and South Korea agree that North Korea should eliminate its nuclear weapons, but tactical differences exist on how to deal with the North. Vice President Dick Cheney will raise these issues during a visit Friday to Seoul.
Henry Sokolski, of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said North Korean propaganda has been influencing South Korean public opinion.
"The North Koreans have been talking about Americans being a source of war and instability on the peninsula," Sokolski said. "A lot of young people read this and believe it."
South Korea pleased the United States by offering to send 3,600 troops to Iraq to do reconstruction work. Officials there say the commitment would be re-evaluated if the troops come under threat. The deployment has become part of the campaign debate.
The reluctant South Korean embrace of the United States these days contrasts with the situation a generation ago. Was the United States so traumatized by the Vietnam War that it would never go to war in Asia again? Seoul was worried.
Oberdorfer says the Washington-Seoul defense alliance has not been the same since a groundbreaking summit meeting in Pyongyang in June 2000 between the leaders of North and South Korea. Ever since, Seoul has been reaching out to the North's Stalinist leadership, causing dread among many in Washington.
"South Korea is now trying to restrain the U.S. and to find ways to make compromises with the North," Oberdorfer said.
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EDITOR'S NOTE - George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The Associated Press since 1968.
cl-nwtreehugger
Am I imagining this, or was that part of an already proposed deal?
cl-nwtreehugger