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The government on Sunday responded skeptically to the recent New York Times report that North Korea may have secretly built a second facility for reprocessing spent fuel rods. "The information is unconfirmed," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
The Times wrote that "sensors set up on North Korea's borders have begun to detect elevated levels of krypton 85, a gas emitted as spent fuel is converted into plutonium." The Korean government said that because the krypton 85 was not collected in North Korea's atmosphere, but 100-200 miles away, it was too early to draw conclusions.
"Japan and Russia also convert used fuel rods from nuclear development plants," the Cheong Wa Dae official said, "so the krypton 85 that was collected may make us suspicious, but it cannot be scientifically proven that it came from North Korea, so no one can say for sure."
Another Cheong Wa Dae official said, "This rankles in our minds, but we cannot make an accurate judgment. We know that Yongdeok-dong, Guseong city in North Pyeongan province is a district used for high explosive tests, but are not sure whether there are nuclear facilities there."
Officials at the Foreign Ministry were also skeptical about the report, and insisted it would have little impact on talks to solve the nuclear crisis.
The article said that strong evidence that Pyongyang has built a second plant to produce weapons-grade plutonium has emerged in recent weeks, complicating the diplomatic strategy to end the North's nuclear program as well as military options if diplomacy fails.
The computer analyses that track the gases over the Korean Peninsula suggest that krypton 85 is originating not from the Yongbyon reprocessing plant, but a second, secret plant, probably buried in the mountains, it said.
While U.S. officials confirmed that the sensors set up at the Military Demarcation Line have begun to detect higher levels of krypton 85, they say they cannot verify the claim about the second plutonium plant. A senior Bush Administration official commented that it was very worrisome, but still not conclusive.
If the current evidence is properly interpreted and a second plutonium plant does exist, President George W. Bush may not have the option that his predecessor Bill Clinton once considered in 1994, to use a military strike or other sabotage plan to prevent Pyongyang from producing weapons-grade material, the Times said.
The report suggested that Washington's anxiety about a second plutonium plant in the North had been elevated after a report from the South Korean intelligence agency indicating that one of its agents had reported the presence of a second plant, northeast of Yongbyon.
(Kim In-gu, ginko@chosun.com )
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