"Kim Jong-il Directs Nuclear Development`

North Korea slowed down its nuclear development when the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung died in 1994 after the International Atomic Energy Agency`s inspection over its nuclear facility in Yeongbyeon in the early 1990s. But the Communist country is allegedly escalating its effort to develop nuclear weapons under the command of the country`s `Dear Leader` Kim Jong-il. biological and chemical weapons are also being studies, and prototypes are being experimented with on political dissidents and felons.In the nuclear facility in Yeonbyeon.

Shucan Shinjo, a Japanese weekly magazine, ran a memoir from a North Korea female scientist on its latest issue published on the 17th. The scientist identified just as Lee worked at the facility from 1973 to 1979 and sought exile in a third country via China.

The magazine said that Lee worked at the nuclear facility in Yeongbyeon in North Korea after she graduated from Pyeongan College of Biology. According to the magazine, she hails from an elite family and her parents and brother also work in the Atomic Energy and Science Committee in North Korea. The magazine also maintained that given all the fact, her allegation was highly credible.

It is reported that Lee Yeong-hwa, professor of Kansai University in Japan and head of the Rescue The North Korean People! Urgent Action Network (RENK) helped her defection to a third country. RENK is a non-governmental organization in Japan.

According to Lee, buildings allocated for research teams are named with numbers such as Research Institutes No.101, No.304 and No. 206, factory No.175, Business Place No.66 and August Business Place. That is in an attempt to maintain confidentiality. Information exchanges between buildings are strictly blocked and 20,000 employes are receiving money for keeping secrets, which amount to 20 o 30% of their salary in addition to salary.

Among them, August Business Place processes uranium and February Business Place possesses a nuclear reactor. But these two facilities are difficult to find out since they were covered by forests. Lee said, "All materials used in nuclear development facilities were hidden in a cave, artificially made under the ground of Yaksan, Yeongbyeon.

She went on to say, "When the facilities were inspected in the early 1990s, the North Korean regime dressed senior researchers and their families with military uniforms and transferred them to a secret site located in yeongsan-gun, North Hwanghae province.

According to Lee, Dr. Kim Seo-in is taking charge of nuclear development. Dr. Kim in his 30s was born when his parents studied in now defunct Soviet Union. His parents are also nuclear experts. The late Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il, chairman of the National Defense Commission highly appreciated Dr. Kim`s talent and helped him study overseas. He left North Korea at 13 and received Doctorate degree at 21.

Kim Jong-il is nurturing 20 more young doctors and treating them exceptionally well.

Lee quoted Kim as saying, "I will reunify the nation with the help of the 20 young doctors.”

ksshim@donga.com