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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Kimmi: Nukes, What Nukes? |
| 2005-07-30 |
| U.S. negotiators at talks in Beijing have presented North Korea with data that America says is evidence of a covert nuclear weapons program, but Pyongyang continued to deny such a program exists, U.S. officials said on Friday. They said the evidence was obtained from disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan whose secret network sold nuclear technology to North Korea. It was presented as part of U.S. efforts to unblock a key sticking point at the six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs. "The negotiators presented them with some of the Khan evidence and they tried to deny it. But they always deny it. We have a lot of facts and they (negotiators) have given the North Koreans some of them," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media. The evidence, handed over in bilateral meetings held during the multi-party talks, related to a covert program to produce highly enriched uranium, or HEU, which has been an issue since Washington said it uncovered it in 2002. Pyongyang admits to producing plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. The Americans say North Korea initially acknowledged also having a secret HEU program when accused of that by U.S. officials but has subsequently denied the program's existence. The issue is critical because the United States is demanding in the six-country talks that Pyongyang dismantle all its nuclear activities, including the HEU program. Although U.S. officials are confident the HEU program exists, they say they do not know where it is. North Korea has thousands of underground tunnels dug for military use. U.S. officials speculated the continued denial of the HEU program suggested Pyongyang was digging in for long and tough negotiations. "Eventually, they may want to get something in return for coming clean on this," one official said. He added that "the information that was passed on (to the North Korean negotiators) was information we did get from Khan himself," although the official could not say if it was from Khan directly or through the Pakistani government. |
| Posted by:Captain America |
| #2 A convenient fiction to protect Musharraf and the pak army. |
| Posted by: john 2005-07-30 07:02 |
| #1 Disgraced paki scientist? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-30 06:49 |