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North Korea Suspected of Selling Uranium to Libya
The International Atomic Energy Agency has found strong evidence in recent weeks that a container of uranium hexafluoride surrendered by Libya this year originated in North Korea, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, May 21). The cask was sent to the United States by Libya earlier this year as part of Col. Muammar Qadhafi’s agreement to dismantle his nuclear and other WMD programs. At the time, U.S. officials identified Pakistan as the probable source of the materials. The uranium could not be used as nuclear fuel unless it was enriched in centrifuges, which Libya was constructing as part of a $100 million program to purchase equipment from the Khan network. If enriched, the 2 tons could have produced a single nuclear weapon, experts said. North Korea has mines that the Federation of American Scientists has described as “4 million tons of exploitable high-quality uranium.” The IAEA discovery suggests that the communist nation has become a supplier of nuclear technology, the Times reported. Intelligence agencies worldwide are exploring whether North Korea made similar sales to other countries or perhaps even to terrorist organizations, according to the Times. “The North Koreans have been selling missiles for years to many countries,” one senior Bush administration official said recently, referring to the country’s sales to Iran, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and other nations. “Now, we have to look at their trading network in a very different context, to see if something much worse was happening as well,” the official added. IAEA officials hope to confirm the finding with the North Koreans, but since inspectors were evicted on Dec. 31, 2002, there has been minimal contact with the reclusive Pyongyang government (Sanger/Broad, New York Times, May 22). Meanwhile, U.N. envoy Maurice Strong, who returned from North Korea Saturday from a visit on behalf of Secretary General Kofi Annan, said Pyongyang has vowed to move forward with its nuclear programs until it receives security guarantees from the United States, the Associated Press reported. “They look at their nuclear weapons as the best guarantee they have against a threat that they perceive from the United States,” Strong said. “They are going to continue, they say, to develop that capability until there is a security guarantee that they can rely on,” he added (Joe McDonald, Associated Press/San Diego Tribune, May 22). Elsewhere, Russia called for security guarantees and economic aid to North Korea ahead of talks tonight with visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, ITAR-Tass reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Russia calls for “security guarantees and economic assistance to North Korea with the aim of improving the situation in the Korean Peninsula.” Yakovenko added that Moscow attaches economic and political importance to the trilateral business partnership of Russia, South Korea and North Korea (Valery Agarkov, ITAR-Tass, May 24). Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Saturday after a 90-minute meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that Kim was prepared to solve the nuclear standoff through the six-party talks, Agence France-Presse reported. “Chairman Kim Jong Il said he aimed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” Koizumi said. “He said he wanted to make efforts towards a peaceful solution by utilizing the six-way talks,” he added. Koizumi said he offered North Korea 250,000 tons of rice and $10 million worth of medical supplies as humanitarian aid (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 22).
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