The Obama administration told the United Nations nuclear watchdog that North Korea likely has construct more than one uranium enrichment facility, considerably raising the proliferation threat posed by the secretive communist state.U.S. and European official are pressing the International Atomic Energy Agency to better scrutinize Pyongyang's possible role in sharing its nuclear technologies with third countries. But the U.N. agency's skill to monitor Pyongyang is limited: North Korea kick out the IAEA's inspectors in 2009.
The IAEA already is inspecting evidence that North Korea transferred a nearly operational nuclear reactor to Syria, which Israeli jets afterward destroyed in 2007. U.S. and U.N. officials now worry Pyongyang could begin export its advanced centrifuge gear to its military allies in Iran and Myanmar. "A uranium enrichment ability in could bolster its pursuit of a weapons capability and enlarge our concerns about prospects for on proliferation of fissile material and of sensitive technologies," Glyn Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, told the agency's 35 associate board Thursday.
Mr. Davies said the U.S. believes Pyongyang may have previously developed uranium enrichment services beyond the one site it showed a visiting American scientist, Siegried Hecker, last month. These extra facilities would allow North Korea to significantly enlarge its numbers of atomic weapons, as well as their yield. "It is likely that North Korea had been pursue an enrichment ability long before the April 2009 date it now claims," Mr. Davies said. "If so, there is a clear likelihood that DPRK has constructed other uranium enrichment related facilities in its territory."
The IAEA already is inspecting evidence that North Korea transferred a nearly operational nuclear reactor to Syria, which Israeli jets afterward destroyed in 2007. U.S. and U.N. officials now worry Pyongyang could begin export its advanced centrifuge gear to its military allies in Iran and Myanmar. "A uranium enrichment ability in could bolster its pursuit of a weapons capability and enlarge our concerns about prospects for on proliferation of fissile material and of sensitive technologies," Glyn Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, told the agency's 35 associate board Thursday.
Mr. Davies said the U.S. believes Pyongyang may have previously developed uranium enrichment services beyond the one site it showed a visiting American scientist, Siegried Hecker, last month. These extra facilities would allow North Korea to significantly enlarge its numbers of atomic weapons, as well as their yield. "It is likely that North Korea had been pursue an enrichment ability long before the April 2009 date it now claims," Mr. Davies said. "If so, there is a clear likelihood that DPRK has constructed other uranium enrichment related facilities in its territory."
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