Author:
Publication: Daily Times
Date: June 21, 2004
URL: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-6-2004_pg7_8
Missing Pakistani nuclear scientists
may be staying in North Korea helping develop its uranium-based nuclear
weapons programme, reports said on Sunday.
Yonhap news agency, citing a report
from the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) in Seoul,
said North Korea might have achieved a higher level of technology for enriched
uranium with the help of foreign scientists.
"Nine Pakistani nuclear scientists
have been missing since they left their country six years ago and we cannot
rule out the possibility that some of them are in North Korea," KINU researcher
Jeon Sung-Hun was quoted as saying.
North Korea's highly enriched uranium
programme was at an early stage in its development, he said. "However,
we should be prepared to find that North Korea has received a level of
technology and cooperation from Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and
Belarus which surpasses general expectations," he added.
The nuclear standoff on the Korean
peninsula flared in October 2002 when Washington accused North Korea of
running a secret nuclear programme based on enriched uranium.
North Korea has acknowledged having
a plutonium programme but denies that it is enriching uranium to make nuclear
fuel. It has rejected US demands for a complete dismantling of its nuclear
programmes without receiving rewards first. afp
