Seoul - North Korea is enriching uranium, which could
produce fuel for nuclear weapons, South Korea's defence minister said
Tuesday.
'It seems it is definitely being pursued,' Lee Sang Hee said at a
National Assembly hearing.
Highly enriched uranium can be used to produce atomic weapons, and
Lee said uranium enrichment can be more easily hid from the
international community than producing weapons-suitable plutonium
from spent nuclear fuel because it requires an area of only 600 to
1,000 square metres.
North Korea announced in mid-June that it would produce further
nuclear weapons and conduct uranium enrichment in response to an
expansion of sanctions against it by the UN Security Council
following North Korea's second nuclear test on May 25.
It said it intended to turn newly created plutonium stores into
nuclear weapons and accelerate uranium-enrichment projects with the
construction of a series of light-water reactors.
An independent examination of North Korea's nuclear activities has
not been possible since it expelled international inspectors in
April, but the United States has suspected for years that North Korea
has had a uranium-enrichment programme as part of its efforts to
produce atomic bombs.
Lee also suggested Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's
health could be deteriorating. South Korean intelligence agencies
have said Kim, 67, suffered a stroke in August.
South Korea's military 'is intensely monitoring [the situation]
while bearing in mind the possibilities that Kim's health has
degraded,' Lee said, citing speculation that the South's totalitarian
neighbour recently fabricated a report on a field inspection by Kim
by using an old photo of the leader.
Meanwhile, a delegation of South Korean officials travelled to
North Korea Tuesday to prepare for talks on the future of the final
remaining joint economic project between both countries, an
industrial park at the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
Thursday's talks are to take place at the park. A round of
negotiations June 19 aimed at keeping the park in operation ended
without progress.
South Korea has rejected the North's demands for an increase in
rental fees by 3,000 per cent to 500 million dollars over 50 years
and to quadruple the wages of the North Korean workers employed by
South Korean firms at the park to 300 dollars per month.
North Korea also refused to release a detained South Korean park
worker who had allegedly criticized the government in Pyongyang.
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