South Korea's top defense official today said North Korea is clearly "moving forward" on a program to enrich uranium, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 29).
(Jun. 30) -
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Sunday called on the international community to enforce U.N. sanctions against North Korea (Toru Hanai/Getty Images).
The North announced earlier this month it intended to produce enriched uranium for use in a light-water reactor, despite denying the existence of such a program for the last seven years. The claim was not merely posturing, according to South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee.
"It is clear that they are moving forward with it," Lee told lawmakers in Seoul.
Enriched uranium would give Pyongyang a second route for powering nuclear weapons, alongside its known plutonium production program.
The United States and its allies have been monitoring North Korea's efforts to reprocess plutonium rods at its Yongbyon nuclear facility for some time. However, the Stalinist state could more easily hide a uranium enrichment program underground or in less visible facilities.
Analysts doubt Pyongyang has the know-how and resources to construct a working light-water plant. They believe it is more likely the regime would use a civilian reactor as a front for a weapons program.
The North is believed to have bought technology necessary for uranium enrichment, but observers doubt it has made significant progress.
"It seems unlikely that North Korea will succeed in establishing a substantial enrichment capability ... in the near term," nuclear expert Hui Zhang wrote this month in a journal article. He did note that Pyongyang could make rapid strides with assistance from Iran, which is already conducting uranium enrichment.
The global community ought to put "strong pressure" on the North in the interest of curbing these ambitions, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said today in a speech.
"We need to show (North Korea) that it would not benefit from any further act of provocation," Aso said, adding that Japan has "not closed our door" on resolving the issue diplomatically (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, June 30).
Standing with Aso after their meeting in Tokyo on Sunday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak reaffirmed the need for vigilance in enforcing the latest U.N. sanctions against his nation's neighbor, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The U.N. Security Council earlier this month approved the sanctions resolution -- which included a ban on all weapons imports and exports -- in the wake of the North's May 25 nuclear test and a series of missile launches.
"The U.N. resolution must be implemented at this time," Lee said.
"The final aim of the sanctions through the U.N. Security Council will not be to punish the North, but to persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons and become part of the international community," he added (Byun Duk-kun, Yonhap News Agency/Individual.com, June 28).
A U.S. delegation -- led by Philip Goldberg, Washington's newly minted North Korea sanctions czar -- is traveling to China today to talk with officials in Beijing about the details of implementing the resolution, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, June 30).
China is doing more business than ever with Pyongyang, buying 73 percent of its exported materials last year, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Money that goes straight to the North Korean military is a large reason why the North's Stalinist government has been able to continue provoking the United Nations with persistent nuclear and missile tests with virtual impunity, said Marcus Noland, a Washington-based North Korea analyst.
"If China continues business as usual with the North Koreans, they won't feel any pain," said one Japanese Foreign Ministry official (Blaine Harden, Washington Post, June 27).