Pakistani President, Army Supervised Shipment of Uranium Centrifuges to North Korea, Khan Says

A shipment of uranium enrichment centrifuges to North Korea eight years ago was approved by Pakistan’s top leadership and supervised by the army, former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said Friday (see GSN, June 27).

Khan’s claim was the most direct charge yet that President Pervez Musharraf was involved in an international nuclear smuggling ring that provided key technologies to Iran, Libya and North Korea, the Associated Press reported.

Khan said used P-1 centrifuges were loaded onto North Korea aircraft with the “complete knowledge” of the Pakistani army and security services.

“It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment,” he said in an interview from the home where he has been held under house arrest since his 2004 confession to leading the smuggling network (see GSN, July 3). 

Khan this year has recanted his admission, saying he gave it under the false promise that he would be granted his freedom (see GSN, June 4).

A Musharraf representative denied the charge.

“I can say with full confidence that it is all lies and false statements,” said spokesman Rashid Qureshi (Munir Ahmad, Associated Press/Google News, July 5).

A top military official also refuted Khan’s claim, while acknowledging that 12 centrifuges had been sent to North Korea in 2000 and an additional unit had been delivered earlier.

“Technically, yes it happened in his (Musharraf’s) tenure, but giving an impression that he or the army was aware or supervised it is wrong,” said Lt. Gen. Khalid Kidwai, head of the nation’s Strategic Planning Division.  “I would like to categorically say it is absolutely wrong, false” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 5).

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