US jittery over Pak-Korea N- exus

Author: AFP
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 28, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/525280.cms

Pakistan may have helped North Korea test a plutonium- based nuclear device in 1998, former and current US intelligence officials were quoted in a report as saying on Friday.
 
The report could influence the ongoing six- party talks in Beijing over North Korea's alleged nuclear weapons program.
 
Clues to the possible joint nuclear test followed underground nuclear tests carried out by Pakistan in May 1998, the paper said.
 
According to the sources, a US military jet sent to sample the air over Baluchistan, Pakistan, after the final nuclear test found traces of plutonium, which surprised US experts since Pakistan had openly stated that it was testing bombs fuelled by highly enriched uranium.
 
The explanations for the plutonium included the possibility that North Korea could have given Pakistan some of its plutonium to conduct a joint test of an atomic weapon, the sources said.
 
The matter was debated but never settled and was mostly forgotten until Pakistani scientist and architect of the country's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, confessed last month that he passed nuclear technology on to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

The New York Times said the plutonium North Korea may have provided to Pakistan for the joint test could have been a form of compensation for Khan's assistance.
 
If the joint Pakistani-North Korean nuclear test in 1998 is confirmed, it would strongly suggest that North Korea can not only produce plutonium but also build a weapon it has claimed it possesses, the daily said.
 
The US Central Intelligence Agency, US officials said, has been urgently preparing a report this week on what North Korea may have gained from its dealings with Khan.
 

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