N Korea nukes: US has no data
2003-07-14 18:09
Seoul - South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan said on Monday Seoul and Washington had no direct evidence to confirm that North Korea had finished reprocessing spent fuel rods for nuclear weapons.
"There have been no scientific data and evidence to confirm North Korea has finished reprocessing spent fuel rods," Yoon told a domestic radio programme.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Sunday North Korea had told the United States it had completed reprocessing 8 000 spent fuel rods to extract plutonium for nuclear weapons.
UN-based North Korean envoys confirmed at talks with US officials last week in New York that the reprocessing was completed on June 30, the agency said.
It quoted Chang Sung-Min, a former South Korean ruling party lawmaker, as saying the informal meeting was attended by North Korea's UN representative Park Gil-Yon and US State Department official Jack Pritchard.
Yoon confirmed that the New York meeting had taken place and said Washington had briefed Seoul on what transpired during the talks.
However, he refused to elaborate on the meeting and expressed doubt over the North's reported claim.
"South Korea and the United States have until now failed to secure evidence despite efforts through various channels," he said.
Exact assessment
Presidential advisor for foreign policy Ban Ki-Moon said Seoul was trying to get an exact assessment of the situation.
"We don't have the evidence yet to confirm that North Korea has finished the reprocessing phase as it claims," he said.
In Washington, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told NBC on Sunday that it was unclear whether North Korea's claim was true.
"They have told us they have nuclear weapons, they have also made assertions with respect to the pace at which they're reprocessing," he said.
"Some people believe what they are saying, other people don't believe what they are saying," the defence secretary added.
US deputy assistant secretary of state Donald Keyser, on a three-day visit to Seoul since Sunday, had a closed-door meeting with Ban on Monday to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis, officials said.
Keyser has also briefed senior Seoul officials on efforts to curb North Korea's alleged trafficking in drugs and counterfeit money in an attempt to put pressure on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
A top Chinese diplomat was received by reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il on Monday, North Korean media reported, although it was unclear whether they discussed the nuclear issue.
Six more
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, who visited Moscow this month for talks on North Korea, handed Kim a personal letter from President Hu Jintao, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
US and South Korean officials say North Korea may have one or two nuclear bombs and believe reprocessing the fuel rods would yield enough plutonium for about six more.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Saturday the White House had received fresh intelligence indicating the fuel rods were being reprocessed at the Yongbyon nuclear complex north of Pyongyang.
Krypton 85 has been detected in air samples from Yongbyon's vicinity, according to Kyodo. Krypton 85 is released into the atmosphere when spent fuel rods are reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.
North Korea has never tested a nuclear device but indicated last month it possessed atomic weapons when it said in a foreign ministry statement that it intended to "build up its nuclear deterrent".
The nuclear crisis erupted in October when Washington said the North Koreans had admitted to running a nuclear program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord.
The pact collapsed after North Korea expelled UN nuclear inspectors and began to revive its mothballed nuclear plants to protest a US halt to fuel oil supply for the energy-starved state.
The United States says the crisis should be resolved through negotiations but is insisting on a multilateral approach while North Korea wants one-on-one talks with Washington.
The United States and North Korea held talks, also attended by China as a host, in Beijing in April to discuss the nuclear crisis but failed to agree on a follow-up meeting.