NYT Reports Possibility of N.K Extracting Plutonium

New York Times reported on May 8th that a national information agency reported to the President Bush that North Korea has assuredly extracted a little amount of plutonium to produce nuclear weapons. The paper cited a high official as saying, “We are not sure whether North Korea is re-disposing massive nuclear fuels, but there is a distinct possibility that it has already extracted some amount of plutonium.” The agency reported this fact to the President around this mid-May.

The paper expected that this information will have an impact on the keynote speech that President Bush will deliver in the Korean-U.S. and Korean-Japan summit which will be held next week. An official from the U.S. administration said, “We do not have much time left.”

Information authorities have also observed new activities around major re-disposing facilities of Yongbyun in North Korea for the past few days, but they do not necessarily mean operation of those facilities, reported the paper.

The New York Times reported that some officials from the Defense Department are urging President Bush to capture nuclear missiles and drug dealer ships seas while other officials told that the second meeting with the rogue state is likely to be held in a follow-up to the Beijing trilateral summit.

The paper also told that South Korea already provided some evidence about North Korea speeding up in its nuclear program using concentrated uranium two years ago, but the U.S. has been facing with difficulties in collection information regarding that.

sechepa@donga.com