U.S. Concealed Pakistan’s Role in North Korea Uranium Exports, Officials Say

U.S. officials hoped to create a sense of urgency about Pyongyang’s nuclear program among Asian countries by concealing the fact that Pakistan was the actual dealer of North Korean nuclear material found in Libya, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 2).

North Korea supplied uranium hexafluoride to Pakistan, which then sold the weaponizable material to Libya, said two officials with knowledge of the transaction. Pyongyang might not even have known of the second transfer, the Post reported.

Washington earlier this year told China, South Korea and Japan that North Korea had sold uranium to Libya, in order to push for a new round of six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear effort. The briefings were planned quickly after Beijing and Seoul indicated they were considering abandoning the talks altogether, according to two other officials.

The Bush administration’s approach increased skepticism among the United States’ negotiating partners as they learned of key omissions in the U.S. briefing, diplomats and U.S. officials told the Post. Transfers between North Korea and Pakistan have gone on for years and would not have been news to U.S. allies, the Post reported.

A senior administration official said in a prepared comment that Washington “has provided allies with an accurate account of North Korea’s nuclear proliferation activities,” adding that the February briefings made it clear that the North Korean materials traveled through the nuclear black market established by former top Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, March 20).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.