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N. Korea Offers Evidence to
Rebut Uranium Claims
Glenn Kessler
Washington
Post
Saturday November 10, 2007
North Korea is providing evidence to the United States aimed
at proving that it never intended to produce highly enriched uranium
for nuclear weapons, undermining a key U.S. intelligence finding,
South Korean and U.S. officials said this week.
In closely held talks, the North Korean government has granted
U.S. experts access to equipment and documents to make its case,
in preparation for declaring the extent of its nuclear activities
before the end of the year. North Korean officials hope the United
States will simultaneously lift sanctions against Pyongyang as
the declaration is made.
If North Korea successfully demonstrates that U.S. accusations
about the uranium-enrichment program are wrong, it will be a blow
to U.S. intelligence and the Bush administration's credibility.
(Article continues below)
The U.S. charges of a large-scale uranium program led to the
collapse of a Clinton-era agreement that had frozen a North Korean
reactor that produced a different nuclear substance -- plutonium.
That development freed North Korea to use the plutonium route
toward gathering the material needed for a nuclear weapon. Pyongyang
conducted its first nuclear test last year, detonating a plutonium-based
device, and has built a plutonium stockpile that experts estimate
could yield eight to 10 nuclear weapons.
"They have shown us some things, and we are working it through,"
a senior U.S. official said yesterday, speaking on the condition
of anonymity because the talks are confidential. "We are
having a discussion about things. Some explanations make sense;
some are a bit of a stretch."
"This is now in the process of being clarified," a
senior South Korean official said in an interview. "The North
Koreans are now ready to prove that they did not intend to make
a uranium-enrichment program by importing some materials."
Full
article here.
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