The United States has imposed sanctions on the A.Q. Khan Nuclear Research Institute, a major Pakistani nuclear research facility, for providing nuclear assistance to North Korea in apparent exchange for Nodong ballistic missiles, Bush administration officials said yesterday (see GSN, March 31).

The institute has been charged with “material contribution to the efforts of a foreign country, person or entity of proliferation concern, to use, acquire, design, develop and or secure weapons of mass destruction,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.  The statement did not identify the country that had been aided.

The United States decided to levy the sanctions because Pakistan provided North Korea with uranium-enrichment technologies, and received North Korean-built missiles in return, according to the New York Times.  The institute, and not Pakistan itself, was sanctioned in order to avoid embarrassing Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Times reported.

“We couldn’t ignore this, given the enormous damage it did to our effort to keep North Korea from expanding its arsenal,” said a senior Bush administration official.  “But there was a lot of pressure not to embarrass Musharraf,” who may have been unaware of the exchange, the official said, adding that the move “comes at a moment when people aren’t going to pay a lot of attention” (David Sanger, New York Times, April 1).

Pakistan today denied that it had provided nuclear assistance to any country.

“This is absolutely baseless.  We ask America to come up with whatever evidence they have to prove what they are saying,” Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.  “We have neither imported and/or exported nuclear technology to anyone,” Ahmed said (CNN.com, April 1).

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