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North Korea: Pyongyang Seeks Chinese Weapons Aid, Sources Say North Korea appears to be approaching Chinese companies in an attempt to purchase a chemical that could be used to help produce weapon-grade nuclear materials, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Dec. 4). U.S. intelligence has monitored visits by North Korean agents to several Chinese companies that produce tributyl phosphate (TBP), officials familiar with classified intelligence reports said. While TBP has commercial applications, U.S. intelligence agencies believe North Korea is trying to purchase the chemical for use in suspected nuclear weapons efforts, the Times reported. It can be used in purifying uranium and in extracting plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, according to nuclear arms specialists. “This shows they are moving ahead with their uranium (nuclear weapons) program,” an intelligence official said. The TBP “will be used to turn spent (nuclear) fuel into weapons-grade uranium,” the official said. U.S. intelligence agencies have also detected recent activities at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which had been shut down as part of the 1994 Agreed Framework, an intelligence official said (see GSN, Nov. 22). TBP might be used to help produce new plutonium fuel at the site, according to nuclear arms specialists. Through attempts to obtain TBP, North Korea might be trying to send a signal as “a way for Pyongyang to turn up the heat a little, without going to the brink,” said Leonard Spector, deputy director of the Monterey Institute of International Studies Center for Nonproliferation Studies. North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons program is expected to be among the topics of discussion during a visit to the South Pacific this week by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, according to the Times (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Dec. 9). KEDO Meanwhile, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which oversees the Agreed Framework, has decided to postpone a meeting of its executive board for several weeks (see GSN, Nov. 15). The board had been scheduled to meet in New York next week to discuss various issues related to the framework, including the future of two light-water nuclear reactors that the organization is building in North Korea in exchange for a freeze on Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear program. “Due to end-of-the-year scheduling conflicts, board members decided to postpone their meeting until early next year,” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. “They’ll continue to stay in touch with each other and consult with each other on the next steps,” he added. The United States is indifferent to the timing of the meeting since it will be individual governments, and not KEDO, that decide the future of the light-water reactor project, an official said. “They don’t want to meet because if there is a discussion of the light-water reactor construction project all indications are they would call the project off. It’s increasingly clear that [the U.S.] Congress is not going to appropriate any money and highly unlikely that the Japanese Diet will either,” the official said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is expected to travel to China this month, which could give North Korea an opportunity to announce that it will end its suspected uranium-enrichment program, a diplomatic source said (see GSN, Dec. 2). “The delay gives some time for the D.P.R.K. (North Korea) to make an announcement on dismantling the HEU (highly enriched uranium) project. The visit to China could be a good opportunity for something along those lines,” the source said (Jonathan Wright, Reuters/Planet Ark, Dec. 9) KEDO Executive Director Charles Kartman said recently that he believes North Korea will ultimately decide to end any suspected nuclear weapons efforts, according to the Asahi Shimbun. North Korea “seems to understand that the Agreed Framework is now in great jeopardy,” Kartman said. “They use the phrase, ‘If the Agreed Framework is to be alive, and the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is to find a fundamental solution ...,’ then the United States should do some things. This is their way of saying that the Agreed Framework is not yet dead. It is still alive,” he added (Nobuyoshi Sakajiri, Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 29). IAEA Nevertheless, the fact that North Korea has not publicly verified the existence of any suspected nuclear weapons program and has not engaged in any dialogue on the issue is a source of concern, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said today. “It’s a very confusing reporting we’ve got, and that’s why it’s very important that we get direct confirmation from the D.P.R.K. as to what exactly it has been doing,” he said. Even though IAEA inspectors are in North Korea, they are limited to inspecting sites and activities that North Korea has already declared, ElBaradei said. “We do not have the full story. We have asked the D.P.R.K. for clarification. We never got a confirmation of the reports of an enrichment program. We never got a response,” he said. “What worries me now is that there is a lack of dialogue,” ElBaradei added (Agence France-Presse, Dec. 9). For further information, see:
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