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South Korea military heightens defenses
Seoul, May 08: South Korea ordered its military on heightened alert, warning of North Korean provocations, while an official said today that Washington has given the south evidence showing that the communist north might be reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods.
Seoul, May 08: South Korea ordered its military on heightened alert, warning of North Korean provocations, while an official said today that Washington has given the south evidence showing that the communist north might be reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods.
Reprocessing the rods would be a key step toward producing nuclear weapons.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said A US spy satellite photograph showed smoke coming from radiation and chemical laboratories in the north's Yongbyon nuclear complex.
However, the official said other telltale signs of nuclear activity, chemical traces or heat signatures, had not been detected.
During nuclear talks in Beijing last month, US officials said North Korea claimed it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, a move that could yield several atomic bombs within months.
However, US and South Korean officials said they could not verify the claim and suggested North Korea may be bluffing in an attempt to increase its leverage in talks with the United States over its suspected nuclear weapons programs. A spokesman for South Korea's unification ministry, Kim Jung-Ro, said today that the renewed activity at Yongbyon did not necessarily mean the north was reprocessing. “We are not sure if they are doing it as an extension of the bluffing or if it is a step to develop nuclear weapons. We need more evidence,'' he said.
Bureau Report
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said A US spy satellite photograph showed smoke coming from radiation and chemical laboratories in the north's Yongbyon nuclear complex.
However, the official said other telltale signs of nuclear activity, chemical traces or heat signatures, had not been detected.
During nuclear talks in Beijing last month, US officials said North Korea claimed it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, a move that could yield several atomic bombs within months.
However, US and South Korean officials said they could not verify the claim and suggested North Korea may be bluffing in an attempt to increase its leverage in talks with the United States over its suspected nuclear weapons programs. A spokesman for South Korea's unification ministry, Kim Jung-Ro, said today that the renewed activity at Yongbyon did not necessarily mean the north was reprocessing. “We are not sure if they are doing it as an extension of the bluffing or if it is a step to develop nuclear weapons. We need more evidence,'' he said.
Bureau Report