Jack Pritchard, the former Defense Department special envoy for negotiations with North Korea

Pritchard conveyed that Kim Gye-gwan, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister, said that the rods were reprocessed between January and June of last year. If all 8,000 rods are reprocessed, it produces 25~30 kg of plutonium, enough for five nuclear devices, and if the 5 MW reactor is in full operation, North Korea can obtain another 6 kg of additional plutonium annually. Pritchard said, however, that when he visited the reprocessing facility, it was not in operation, and it was difficult to judge whether or not North Korean claims of having reprocessed all the spent rods were true.

He also said that Kim strongly denied the existence of a North Korean program to enrich uranium, quoting the Vice Foreign Minister as saying that a program that used enriched uranium does not exist in North Korea, nor does the country have either the tools or the manpower for such a program. North Korea has been denying the existence of plans for enriched uranium since the later half of last year, explaining that such claims are misreport in the United States. Pritchard went on to say that while he himself believes that such a program does in fact exist, since China and other surrounding countries do not believe this to be the case, plans to share evidence concerning the program should be considered.

On Thursday, Defense Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there is no doubt that North Korea admitted repeatedly that it has a uranium enrichment program. He said that North Korea has made such claims countless times. He said that the United States has information about the program, and has confronted North Korea with it, while stressing that when the James Kelly, the Defense Department’s Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, visited Pyongyang for the first time in October 2002, the North Koreans admitted to having a uranium enrichment program. (Joo Yong-jung, midway@chosun.com )