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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. has concluded with ¡°near-complete certainty¡± that North Korea sold refined uranium used in the construction of nuclear weapons to Libya, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that the U.S. has told South Korea, China and Japan that North Korea has reprocessed its 8,000 spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium.
According to the NYT, during the course of investigating data and nuclear material samples obtained from Libya when Tripoli declared it would give up its nuclear program in December 2003, the U.S. concluded that North Korea provided the North African country with about two tons of uranium hexaflouride (UF4). UF4 is a material made by chemical reaction with refined form of uranium known as "yellowcake" so that it can be fed into nuclear centrifuges and enriched into weapons-grade fuel.
The paper quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying that testing by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has concluded with 90 percent certainty that Libya's uranium hexaflouride came from North Korea. The U.S. deduced the source of Libya's U-234 isotope by comparing it with samples of U-234 from all over the world. As the U.S. has no samples of U-234 from North Korea, it guessed the material came from the North when none of its samples matched.
The NYT reported that the conclusion ¡°supports indications¡± that North Korea has been exporting sensitive materials needed in the assembly of nuclear weapons. This could change the nature of the debate in Washington over the North Korean threat, it added. The Washington Post also said that pressure would build to hasten a solution to the Pyongyang¡¯s nuclear issue. Some U.S. officials have so far believed there is time for a diplomatic solution since there was no evidence North Korea was selling nuclear technology abroad.
One State Department official told the Washington Post that the conclusion more reliable for not being based on CIA intelligence but on information from the U.S. Department of Energy - a reference to the intelligence debacle surrounding former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. The paper added it was significant that the U.S. officially briefed its allies on its conclusion that North Korea reprocessed spent fuel rods.
Meanwhile, there is speculation whether Michael Green, the senior director for Asia on the White House National Security Council, who flew to South Korea on Tuesday, would discuss North Korea's presumed nuclear exports. One government official, however, said Green's visit was to discuss reconvening the six-party talks and had nothing to do with the export issue.
(Kang In-sun, insun@chosun.com )
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