[Korea] North Korea Trying To Enrich Uranium, South Says

SEOUL - North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea's defense minister said on Tuesday. "It is clear that they are moving forward with it," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a parliamentary hearing, adding such a program was far easier to hide than the North's current plutonium-based activities. North Korea earlier this month responded to U.N. punishment for its most recent nuclear test in May by saying it would start enriching uranium for a light-water reactor. Experts said destitute North Korea lacks the technology and resources to build such a costly civilian reactor but may use the program as a cover to enrich uranium for weapons. North Korea, which has ample supplies of natural uranium, would be able to conduct an enrichment program in underground or undisclosed facilities and away from the prying eyes of U.S. spy satellites. The North's plutonium program uses an aging reactor and is centered at its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, which has been watched by U.S. aerial reconnaissance for years. Proliferation experts said the North has purchased equipment needed for uranium enrichment, including centrifuges and high-strength aluminum tubes, but they doubt that Pyongyang has seriously pursued the project. "It seems unlikely that North Korea will succeed in establishing a substantial enrichment capability ... in the near term," nuclear expert Hui Zhang wrote in an article this month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, adding outside help from the likes of Pyongyang's ally Iran could speed up the process. A U.S. accusation that Pyongyang was clandestinely operating a uranium enrichment plan led to the breakdown of a 1994 disarmament deal. New, six-way nuclear talks began in 2003 but are now dormant after the North quit the process in April. (Cont)
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55T1FX20090630