North Korea Purchased Nuclear Equipment from Pakistan

On March 15, the New York Times reported the extent to which Pakistan provided North Korea with equipment and technology it needed to produce uranium-based nuclear weapons such as nuclear fuel, a centrifugal separator, and one or more warhead designs.

The newspaper reported that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) released a detailed account of Pakistan’s provision of nuclear technology to North Korea in a classified intelligence report presented to the White House last week and added that “the assessment confirms the fears about the nature of North Korea`s secret uranium weapons program, which could produce a weapon as early as sometime next year.” The report concluded that North Korea probably received a “package” very similar to the kind that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s “father of nuclear development,” sold to Libya for more than $60 million.

The relationship with Pakistan rapidly accelerated between 1998 and 2002 while North Korea was looking for an alternative when its main plutonium facilities were “frozen” in accordance with the 1994 North Korea-Geneva agreement.

However, the newspaper added that the report leaves two critical issues, including the location of any uranium enrichment facilities and the point of time in making a nuclear weapon, unresolved.

The New York Times pointed out the fact that American intelligence agencies not being able to locate the site of any uranium enrichment facilities indicates that it would be impossible to try to attack the facilities even if the six-party negotiations over the North`s nuclear program fail.

Moreover, it takes several thousand centrifugal separators to efficiently produce enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon. However, American intelligence agencies have not been successful in figuring out when North Korea would reach this stage.

Jung-Ahn Kim credo@donga.com