North Korea Once Again Denies Development of HEU Program

Korea Society chairman and former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Donald Gregg said on September 5 that North Korea once again strongly denied the U.S.’ suspicion that the North has pursued nuclear weapons development by operating a Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) program.

The former ambassador visited North Korea last month and met North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-kwan, who was also the North Korean senior representative at the six-party talks, three times during his stay. “Vice Minister Kim said there was no reason for North Korea to pursue a HEU program when it had enough uranium [for reprocessing] produced from Graphite-moderated Reactor (GMR),” reported the former ambassador.

According to former Ambassador Gregg, Vice Minister Kim said, “At the Beijing six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear issue held in June, the U.S. refused to give an answer when North Korea questioned what the grounds were for the U.S. to think that the North was pursuing a HEU program. The intelligence came from South Korea, and the U.S. unilaterally announced it in October 2002 without any consultations with South Korean authorities.”

To the U.S.’ assertion that North Korea has been operating a HEU program with help of the “Father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb” Abdul Qadeer Khan, the North Korean vice minister reportedly argued, “Dr. Khan visited North Korea only once to pay for North Korean missiles exported to Pakistan in 1998. North Korea and Pakistan do not have any kind of relations involving nuclear weapons.”

Kwon-Heui Hong konihong@donga.com