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The second North Korean nuclear crisis started in October 2002 after the U.S. learned that Pyongyang imported 150 tons of aluminum tubing from Russia, enough to make 2,600 centrifuges for use in uranium enrichment, Japan¡¯s Asahi Shimbun reported.
The paper¡¯s front page story on Sunday quoted several delegates to six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program, including a former high-ranking U.S. official, as saying U.S. intelligence authorities learned of the sale in June 2002.
The aluminum purchased from a Russian businessman is the same that is used in aluminum tubing used in centrifuges developed by British-German-Dutch uranium enrichment company Urenco.
The daily said Washington accused Pyongyang in talks between high-ranking U.S. and North Korean officials in October 2002, four months after it first learned of the sale, of planning a uranium enrichment program, which it later said the reclusive country admitted. This ultimately led to the collapse of the Geneva Accords, it said.
(Jung Kwon-hyun, khjung@chosun.com )
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