Seoul, June 30: North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea’s defense minister said on Tuesday.
“It is clear that they are moving forward with it,” Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a parliamentary hearing, adding such a programme was far easier to hide than the North’s current plutonium-based activities.
North Korea earlier this month responded to U.N. punishment for its most recent nuclear test in May by saying it would start enriching uranium for a light-water reactor.
Experts said destitute North Korea lacks the technology and resources to build such a costly civilian reactor but may use the programme as a cover to enrich uranium for weapons.
North Korea, which has ample supplies of natural uranium, would be able to conduct an enrichment programme in underground or undisclosed facilities and away from the prying eyes of U.S. spy satellites.
The North’s plutonium programme uses an aging reactor and is centred at its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, which has been watched by U.S. aerial reconnaissance for years.
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Proliferation experts said the North has purchased equipment needed for uranium enrichment including centrifuges and high-strength aluminum tubes, but they doubt that Pyongyang has seriously pursued the project.
“It seems unlikely that North Korea will succeed in establishing a substantial enrichment capability … in the near term,” nuclear expert Hui Zhang wrote in an article this month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, adding outside help from the likes of Pyongyang’s ally Iran could speed up the process.
A U.S. accusation that Pyongyang was clandestinely operating a uranium enrichment plan led to the breakdown of a 1994 disarmament deal and the start of new, six-way nuclear talks in 2003. Those talks are now dormant.
South Korean officials said the North’s recent military moves, which also included missile tests and threats to attack the South, were likely aimed at building internal support for leader Kim Jong-il, 67, as he prepares the ground for his youngest son to take over Asia’s only communist dynasty.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said there was no basis to reports in Japan’s Asahi newspaper and Financial Times that Kim’s son Jong-un had visited Beijing as a way of informing the North’s biggest benefactor that he is the heir apparent.
The U.S. point man for sanctions on North Korea aimed to stamp out its arms sales, which are one of the few sources of hard currency for the cash-short North, will arrive in Beijing on Thursday for discussion, spokesman Qin Gang told a briefing.
Investors used to the North’s military rumblings said the developments have not had any major impact on trading but have raised concern among market players.
North Korea is also preparing to test a long-range missile that could hit U.S. territory and mid-range missiles that could hit all of South Korea, which could further rattle regional security, a South Korean presidential Blue House official said last week.
—Agencies