North Korea\'s claims to have a working uranium enrichment plant -- a possible second route to a nuclear bomb -- sparked anger Monday in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
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| Photo released by North Korea\'s official news agency shows a military parade in the reclusive Stalinist state\'s capital, Pyongyang. North Korea\'s claims to have a working uranium enrichment plant -- a possible second route to a nuclear bomb -- sparked anger in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. |
Top US defence officials said the plant would give the state the potential to build more nuclear weapons, while Japan called the disclosure "absolutely unacceptable" and South Korea voiced "grave concerns".
Washington\'s special envoy for Pyongyang Stephen Bosworth said the move was provocative but "not a crisis", and he left the door open for engagement with North Korea.
Alarm bells rang after a US scientist revealed he had toured a modern, new uranium enrichment plant equipped with at least 1,000 centrifuges on November 12 at the North\'s Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Stanford University professor Siegfried Hecker called the facility "stunning", adding he was told it was already producing low-enriched uranium although there was no way to confirm if the plant was fully operational.
"It is possible that Pyongyang\'s latest moves are directed primarily at eventually generating much-needed electricity," he wrote in a report. "Yet, the military potential of uranium enrichment technology is serious."
Hecker said his guides told him there were in fact 2,000 centrifuges already producing low-enriched uranium to help fuel a nuclear power reactor. They insisted it was for a civilian nuclear electricity programme.
The US top military officer, Admiral Michael Mullen, told ABC television the assumption is "that they continue to head in the direction of additional nuclear weapons".
Defence Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Bolivia, said "an enrichment plant like this, assuming that is what it is, obviously gives them the potential to create a number more (nuclear weapons)."
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told parliament that Seoul and Washington share "grave concerns", while Japan\'s top government spokesman Yoshito Sengoku called the development "absolutely unacceptable".
As part of a six-nation pact, the North in 2008 shut down an ageing gas graphite reactor which had produced enough plutonium for possibly six to eight small bombs.
But in April 2009 it angrily quit the six-nation disarmament talks and staged a second atomic weapons test a month later. In September last year it announced it had reached the final stage of enriching uranium.
In recent months, Pyongyang has indicated conditional willingness to return to dialogue but asserts its right to be treated as a nuclear state -- something which Washington, Seoul and Tokyo refuse to countenance.
David Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, estimated that 2,000 centrifuges could -- if reconfigured -- yield about 26 kilograms (57 pounds) of weapons-grade uranium a year, enough for one weapon.
In emailed comments to AFP, he said that the North, by advertising its plant to Hecker, may be trying to seek a "peaceful use exemption" for its enrichment programme or to create a new bargaining chip in negotiations.
Alternatively, it could be trying to sow discord among nuclear negotiating partners, "distracting attention from a secret parallel centrifuge programme, or sowing ambiguity about the exact status of its nuclear weapons programme".
Bosworth called the announcement the latest in a series of "provocative moves" by North Korea.
"That being said, this is not a crisis," he said after talks in Seoul with Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan.
"We are not surprised by this, we have been watching and analysing the (North\'s) aspirations to produce enriched uranium for some time, it goes back several years."
Bosworth, who will go on to Japan and China, said he does "not at all rule out the possibility of further engagement with North Korea".
But there would be no "talking just for the sake of talking" and the North must show it was willing to take hard decisions on denuclearisation.
Asked if the six-party forum was dead, the envoy said: "It\'s still breathing and I still think we have a hope that we are going to be able to resuscitate it."
