North Korea refutes report on uranium sale to Libya

SEOUL (AFP) May 29, 2004
North Korea on Saturday denied as a "false story" a news report that it had secretly provided Libya with nearly two tonnes of uranium that could be enriched for use in nuclear weapons.

"There has been, in fact, no deal in enriched uranium between the DPRK and Libya," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

"The US much ado about the DPRK's (North Korea) illegal sale of uranium hexafluoride is a sheer fabrication," it said.

The New York Times reported on May 23 that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had discovered that a giant cask of uranium hexafluoride (U6), a raw material for enriched uranium, had apparently come to Libya from North Korea in early 2001.

Citing unnamed US officials and European diplomats familiar with the intelligence, the Times said that the transaction, if confirmed, would be the first known case in which the North Korean government had sold a key ingredient for manufacturing atomic weapons to another country.

Richard Boucher, the US State Department's spokesman, told reporters that he believed the IAEA would be looking into the issue as well and diplomats close to the Vienna-based IAEA have confirmed the Times report.

The IAEA is aiming to complete a report this week on Libya, ahead of a meeting of the agency's 35-nation board of governors on June 14 in Vienna, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky had said in Vienna.

The uranium hexafluoride was turned over to the United States by the Libyans earlier this year as part of Libya's agreement to give up its nuclear program, and the Americans had first identified Pakistan as the likely source, according to the Times.

KCNA said the United States was seeking to again raise "the fiction" of Pyongyang's enriched uranium program at the next round of six-way nuclear crisis talks.

A third round of talks, bringing together delegates from the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia, is scheduled to take place before the end of June to discuss ways of resolving a stand-off over North Korea's nuclear programme.

Two rounds of talks have failed to narrow differences. Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded Washington abandon its "hostile policy" towards North Korea and sign a non-aggression accord.

Washington has insisted on the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs as a first step.

The row over North Korea's nuclear program has been ongoing since October 2002, when Washington said the Stalinist state had broken a 1994 nuclear freeze by launching a secret weapons drive.

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