Nov 11, 2004
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- South Korean nuclear experiments revealed earlier this year produced minute amounts of plutonium and near-weapons grade uranium but there was no evidence linking them to an attempt to make nuclear arms, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Thursday.
The report, drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency and made available to The Associated Press, followed up on revelations that South Korea sporadically dabbled in uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing from the early 1980s to 2000.
Uranium enriched to weapons grade and plutonium can both be used to make nuclear warheads. Officials acknowledged the experiments earlier this year amid pervasive IAEA queries but insisted they were small-scale and conducted by scientists who never informed the government.
Beyond establishing that those experiments appeared to have produced only small amounts and were restricted to the laboratory, the report also revealed a separate attempt at uranium enrichment that it said had not been previously reported to the agency.
But the report said this attempt - to enrich uranium chemically - resulted in extremely low enrichment, far below the level normally used to make arms.
South Korea scrambled to deny it had ambitions for a nuclear weapons program following the first revelations in August, and the government sought to play down its role in what it said were unauthorized experiments.
The IAEA report - prepared for a Nov. 25 meeting of the agency's board of governors - noted government assertions that the highest-ranking official aware of enrichment experiments between 1993 and 2000 was the head of a nuclear research agency in the city of Daejon and that the activities included only 14 scientists.
But such claims were questioned by diplomats familiar with IAEA investigations. The fact that uranium metal normally used in enrichment was produced nearly two decades before the experiments were carried out four years ago suggests long-range planning, one diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
IAEA board action on the report could set a precedent for Iran, which the United States accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
If the board decides that the South Korean violations need to be reported to the U.N. Security Council, then the U.S. case for similar action against Tehran - with a much more serious record of nuclear transgressions - likely would receive a boost.
Failure by South Korea to disclose the experiments were "a matter of serious concern" because they violated agreements signed with the IAEA and linked to the Nonproliferation Treaty, the report said.
While not part of the agency's purview, the experiments also appeared to contravene a 1992 agreement between North and South Korea aimed at making the peninsula free of nuclear weapons. That agreement included a commitment to desist from uranium enrichment and related activities that could be used for arms.
North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in 2002 and warned it was working on developing nuclear weapons. The revelation of the South's experiments has complicated the chances of agreement with the North by allowing communist authorities to accuse the United States and other Seoul allies of having double standards.
While praising South Korea for "active cooperation ... in providing timely information" and opening facilities to IAEA inspectors, the report urged the country to provide more details on its plutonium separation and enrichment-related experiments.
It also noted that the government refused two requests by the agency to visit the Daejon government nuclear center and, even after subsequently giving inspectors access in March, initially refused permission for them to take environmental samples.
It said some activities - such as converting natural uranium to metal in preparation for enrichment - were revealed not by the government but through inspections.
In acknowledging laser uranium separation experiments Aug. 23, the government contravened earlier assertions that no such activities had occurred, the report said.
The report confirmed government statements that at least 10 enrichment experiments performed "were laboratory-scale and ... the amounts of ... enriched uranium produced were relatively small" - 200 milligrams.
Still, while the average enrichment level was 10 percent, a minute amount was as high as 77 percent, close to what is considered weapons grade, the report said.
On the Net: IAEA: http://www.iaea.org
© 2004 The Associated Press.
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