It's official: North Korea says 'modern' nuclear plant is operating
| Seoul, South Korea
For the first time, North Korea听made its uranium enrichment program a matter of written record Tuesday with the proud claim in the country鈥檚 leading newspaper of a modern facility that is already operational.
That revelation in the Workers鈥� Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun marks another step toward North Korea鈥檚 emergence as a nuclear power. The North's 鈥渕odern uranium enrichment plan鈥� was still under construction but was already 鈥渆quipped with several thousand centrifuges,鈥� according to the newspaper. In recent years Pyongyang has already exploded two nuclear devices with plutonium at their core.
What the international community knew first
North Korea was first revealed to have a uranium enrichment program in 2002, in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States for Pyongyang to give up nuclear development in return for construction of twin light-water nuclear-energy reactors.
The North denied the existence of the program until earlier this year amid the breakdown of talks with the conservative government of South Korea鈥檚 President Lee Myung-bak, whose inauguration in February 2008 ended a decade of efforts at North-South reconciliation.
North Korean officials earlier this month gave an American team led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker a tour of the plant听at the same complex north of Pyongyang where a five-megawatt reactor has produced plutonium for what intelligence analysts estimate is a dozen nuclear devices.
The article in the Rodong Sinmun,听the first official revelation in the North Korean state media, appeared to have been timed to coincide with US-led naval exercises concluding Wednesday in the Yellow Sea. It does not clarify, however, whether the new reactor is to produce electrical energy or to fabricate the explosive core of nuclear warheads.
鈥淣uclear energy development projects will become more active for peaceful purpose in the future,鈥� it says, but that wording leaves open the possibility that the immediate goal is to produce warheads more powerful than those tested underground in October 2006 and May 2009.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official, Lim Jung-taek, calls North Korea鈥檚 boast of building the reactor 鈥渜uite worrisome鈥� 鈥� and 鈥渁 violation鈥� of United Nations Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions after each of the tests.
North Koreans are 'preparing their cards'
As for when North Korea is likely to test an explosive with highly enriched uranium, Mr. Lim says, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what surprise event they are preparing.鈥� The North Koreans 鈥渁re preparing their cards.鈥�
North Korea publicized its reactor one week after North Korean gunners fired 170 artillery rounds into a small island in the Yellow Sea eight miles from the North Korean coastline, killing two marines and two civilians.
US and South Korean warships, led by the US aircraft carrier George Washington, on Sunday opened four days of what a South Korean defense official calls 鈥渉igh-intensity鈥� drills 50 miles south of the island.
US jet fighters Tuesday were taking off from the George Washington, said the official, intercepting mock aircraft aided by radar from US and South Korean destroyers and aircraft. Ships simulated interdiction of vessels in 鈥渟earch and seizure鈥� looking for contraband cargo.
US and South Korean forces staged the war games, which end tomorrow, to the din of North Korean threats of 鈥渁ll-out war,鈥�听鈥渕erciless punishment,鈥� and 鈥渦nforeseen consequences.鈥�
North Korea and WikiLeaks on Iran's nuclear technology
Intelligence analysts believe that over the past decade North Korea has shipped missiles to Iran and exchanged nuclear components and technology with Iran as well as Pakistan by air via China, despite UN sanction resolutions.
Documents released this week by WikiLeaks show the US informing China of aircraft stopping in Beijing carrying missiles from North Korea to Iran while North Korea scours world markets for components.
South Korea, however, appears reluctant to make the link between Iran and North Korea, which former US President George W. Bush in 2002 labeled as part an 鈥渁xis of evil." South Korea imports 10 percent of its oil from Iran while South Korean companies export cars and high-tech products to Iran 鈥� and have invested heavily in projects there.
鈥淚f we are sure Iran goes down the path of nuclear weapons, that will be destabilizing,鈥� says Lee Chung-min, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University, who also serves as ambassador for international security. 鈥淚f there is incontrovertible evidence that North Korea is assisting Iran鈥檚 nuclear program, that will be of critical concern.鈥�
