Nuke reports 'groundless'

2003-07-21 08:37

Seoul - South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun on Monday played down reports that North Korea may have built a second, secret plant for producing weapons-grade plutonium.

"Unclear and groundless reports could pour cold water on our economy," Roh said in a meeting with senior aides.

The president's office said Roh was responding to a New York Times report on Sunday that sensors set up on North Korea's borders have begun detecting elevated levels of krypton 85, a gas emitted as spent fuel is converted into plutonium.

The newspaper, citing US and Asian officials with access to the latest intelligence, suggested a second nuclear plant may be operating in North Korea.

It said computer analyses that track the gases as they are blown across the Korean peninsula appeared to rule out the Yongbyon complex as their origin. Yongbyon has a reprocessing plant.

Deputy foreign minister Lee Soo-Hyuck said the report was based on presumptions.

"There is no conclusive information about such facilities," he told a domestic radio programme.

He also expressed confidence that the report would not sway "the firm US position of seeking a peaceful and diplomatic solution" to the nine-month-old nuclear crisis which began in October last year.

Presidential Security Advisor Ra Jong-Yil predicted nuclear talks could take place "at an early date".

"I believe they are in the final stage of fine-tuning the dialogue format," Ra said.

American officials said last week that Chinese, US and North Korean delegates would meet in a format that could be expanded to include Japan and South Korea. A first round of three-party talks was held in Beijing in April.

The United States has insisted on a multilateral format for the talks and has been eager to include its Japanese and South Korean allies. North Korea has said the nuclear crisis can only be resolved through one-on-one talks with Washington.

Ra, who visited Washington last week, said Pyongyang's concerns about its security must be addressed under any format.

He said the North appears to be softening its stance on demands for a written guarantee that the United States would not launch an attack.

China spearheaded the latest diplomatic drive by sending Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo last week to Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

Recently the North claimed it had reprocessed 8 000 spent nuclear fuel rods housed at Yongbyon to make sufficient weapons-grade plutonium for some six bombs.

- AFX