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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is taking seriously intelligence results suggesting North Korea sold uranium-based nuclear materials to Libya. Washington was always concerned about Pyongyang¡¯s possession of nuclear weapons but declared itself even warier of Pyongyang selling related technology, equipment or materials. It believes that potential buyers - terrorist groups or states that support terrorism - could use the exports to develop nuclear weapons for use against the United States.
U.S. President George W. Bush and other high officials have repeatedly warned that North Korea would sell nuclear weapons to anyone with the cash to pay for them and must be stopped. Former U.S. nuclear negotiator Robert Gallucci recently said that in the worst-case scenario North Korea would move nuclear weapons or materials to another country, forcing the U.S. to act.
U.S. intelligence officials are now "90 percent sure" that North Korea exported nuclear material to Libya ? a state of affairs perilously close to Galluci¡¯s worst-case scenario. That the senior director for Asian issues at the White House National Security Council, Michael Green, is touring Japan, Korea and China to inform them of North Korea's uranium sales speaks of the severity with which the U.S. is regarding the news.
The Washington Post said Uranium hexafluoride ¡°is not fissile material but can be enriched into weapons-grade material if it is fed into nuclear centrifuges. Thus, it is considered material that could eventually be used in weapons, making the discovery of the sale disturbing to U.S. officials."
The changes this latest discovery will make to Washington¡¯s North Korea policy are hard to predict. It is very likely, however, that it will strengthen Bush administration hardliners. The New York Times said the development "could alter Washington's debate about the assessment of the North Korean nuclear threat." It would likely put on the defensive those who say the North Korean threat is exaggerated. The Washington Post, meanwhile, said, "The new information could raise the pressure to act because it suggests that North Korea not only is expanding its program but also could be actively exporting nuclear material."
Many expected the U.S. to enact harsher military or economic sanctions on North Korea after referring the issue to the U.N. Security Council if the six-party talks fail to resolve the nuclear issue. Now that the U.S. has already moved to "notify" China and South Korea that its worst case scenario has become a reality, there are fears that Washington is plotting more drastic measures.
(Heo Yong-beom, heo@chosun.com )
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