ANALYSIS: N. Korea’s uranium program new setback to denuclearization
Nov. 24, 2010
Over the past eight years, nuclear experts have suspected that North Korea has sought to develop a nuclear arsenal by using enriched uranium, the nuclear fuel of choice among the world's nuclear powers.
A report released Saturday by U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried S. Hecker that he saw ''more than a thousand'' centrifuges in operation at a ''modern, clean centrifuge plant'' at the North Korean nuclear complex in Yongbyon has removed any lingering doubt about North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was invited to tour the uranium facility earlier this month as North Korea took steps to consolidate the position of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's third son, Kim Jong Un, as the anointed successor to his father.
By demonstrating the nation's uranium enrichment capability, North Korean authorities are apparently signaling that Pyongyang, like the world's other nuclear powers, is taking the enriched uranium route in building its nuclear arsenal.
North Korea has twice tested nuclear devices, both times using plutonium as the fissile material.
As the moribund six-nation talks have been focused on North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear program, the confirmation that Pyongyang has a parallel uranium enrichment program, along with plans to build an experimental light-water reactor, has vastly complicated international efforts to keep the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.
The United States is sending its special envoy on North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing for consultations amid new challenges to the six-party talks, suspended since December 2008.
Hecker said North Korea claims to have 2,000 centrifuges in operation at the facility where he visited on Nov 12.
If the North Korean claim is true, Pyongyang has demonstrated that it has the capability to pursue its nuclear ambitions despite pressure from the international community and the U.N. Security Council, casting doubt on the effectiveness of international sanctions.
Even if the six-nation talks are resumed, the process needs to be reconfigured.
A Beijing-based diplomat suggested that with the six-nation talks suspended and Washington putting bilateral talks with Pyongyang on hold, North Korea has been given precious time to develop its uranium enrichment and light-water reactor technology.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Nov. 21, 2010)
A report released Saturday by U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried S. Hecker that he saw ''more than a thousand'' centrifuges in operation at a ''modern, clean centrifuge plant'' at the North Korean nuclear complex in Yongbyon has removed any lingering doubt about North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was invited to tour the uranium facility earlier this month as North Korea took steps to consolidate the position of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's third son, Kim Jong Un, as the anointed successor to his father.
By demonstrating the nation's uranium enrichment capability, North Korean authorities are apparently signaling that Pyongyang, like the world's other nuclear powers, is taking the enriched uranium route in building its nuclear arsenal.
North Korea has twice tested nuclear devices, both times using plutonium as the fissile material.
As the moribund six-nation talks have been focused on North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear program, the confirmation that Pyongyang has a parallel uranium enrichment program, along with plans to build an experimental light-water reactor, has vastly complicated international efforts to keep the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.
The United States is sending its special envoy on North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing for consultations amid new challenges to the six-party talks, suspended since December 2008.
Hecker said North Korea claims to have 2,000 centrifuges in operation at the facility where he visited on Nov 12.
If the North Korean claim is true, Pyongyang has demonstrated that it has the capability to pursue its nuclear ambitions despite pressure from the international community and the U.N. Security Council, casting doubt on the effectiveness of international sanctions.
Even if the six-nation talks are resumed, the process needs to be reconfigured.
A Beijing-based diplomat suggested that with the six-nation talks suspended and Washington putting bilateral talks with Pyongyang on hold, North Korea has been given precious time to develop its uranium enrichment and light-water reactor technology.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Nov. 21, 2010)
