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U.S. Sees Greater North Korea Nuclear Threat

03 December 2010 03:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Obama administration told the United Nations nuclear watchdog that North Korea likely has built more than one uranium-enrichment facility, significantly raising the proliferation threat posed by the secretive communist state, APA reports quoting online.wsj.com website.
U.S. and European officials are pressing the International Atomic Energy Agency to better scrutinize Pyongyang’s potential role in sharing its nuclear technologies with third countries. But the U.N. agency’s ability to monitor Pyongyang is limited: North Korea kicked out the IAEA’s inspectors in 2009.
The IAEA already is investigating evidence that North Korea transferred a nearly operational nuclear reactor to Syria, which Israeli jets subsequently destroyed in 2007. U.S. and U.N. officials now worry Pyongyang could begin exporting its advanced centrifuge equipment to its military allies in Iran and Myanmar.
"A uranium enrichment capability in [North Korea] could bolster its pursuit of a weapons capability and increases our concerns about prospects for onward proliferation of fissile material and of sensitive technologies," Glyn Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, told the agency’s 35-member board Thursday.
Mr. Davies said the U.S. believes Pyongyang may have already developed uranium-enrichment facilities beyond the one site it showed a visiting American scientist, Siegried Hecker, last month.
These additional facilities would allow North Korea to significantly increase its numbers of atomic weapons, as well as their yield.
"It is likely that North Korea had been pursuing an enrichment capability long before the April 2009 date it now claims," Mr. Davies said. "If so, there is a clear likelihood that DPRK has built other uranium enrichment-related facilities in its territory."
Since North Korea made public its uranium-enrichment capability last month, the Obama has struggled to formulate a new policy toward leader Kim Jong Il’s government. This has been compounded by the North Korean attack on a South Korean island on Nov. 23, which dramatically heightened tensions in Northeast Asia.
China has proposed hosting this month an emergency session of the five other countries that have engaged Pyongyang diplomatically in recent years. They include Japan, South Korea, Russia and the U.S.
Washington and Seoul, however, have been lukewarm to Beijing’s overture, worried that it could appear to be rewarding Pyongyang for its provocative actions. Washington is also concerned that Kim Jong Il is trying to present North Korea internationally as a declared nuclear-power.
"Our position remains the same. We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state," Mr. Davies said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will hold a key strategy session on Monday in Washington with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts. The meeting follows extensive war games that the U.S. and South Korean military’s conducted over the past week in the waters off the Korean peninsula.
Separately in Vienna Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, said his government welcomed a resumption of talks with the U.S. and other global powers that are aimed at containined Tehran’s nuclear work. The negotiations will be held in Geneva on Dec. 6-7.
Still, Mr. Soltanieh gave no indications that Tehran was willing to bend to international pressure and cease producing nuclear fuel. He also charged the U.S. and other Western powers of playing a role in the assassination this week of two Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran. And he charged the IAEA with being complicit in the attack by sharing information with Washington.
"Some of the targets are the nuclear experts listed inâ€¦the sanctions," Mr. Soltanieh told reporters in Vienna. "The agency should feel responsible."
The IAEA declined to comment on Mr. Soltanieh’s charges. The U.S. has denied any role in this week’s assassinations.