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Scientific Tests Indicate North Korea Sold Processed Uranium to Libya, U.S. Officials Say
Tests of former Libyan nuclear equipment have largely convinced U.S. scientists and intelligence agencies that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 1). Testing performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee over the last several months has ruled out other potential suppliers such as Pakistan, officials told the Times. “With a certainty of 90 percent or better, this stuff's from North Korea,” one official said. The new evidence is “huge, because it changes the whole equation with the North,” according to one recently retired Defense Department official. “It suggests we don’t have time to sit around and wait for the outcome of negotiations,” he said. “It’s a scary conclusion because you don’t know who else they may have sold to.” “This pushes along our understanding of the North Korean program,” said Leonard Specter of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute. “It means the North Koreans have built a facility to process uranium. And it raises the disturbing prospect that they’ve now made enough of it to feel comfortable selling some” (Sanger/Broad, New York Times, Feb. 2). A trip this week by National Security Council officials Michael Green and William Tobey was scheduled solely to inform Japan, South Korea and China about intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear program, the Washington Post reported (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Feb. 2).
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