Head of U.N. nuclear agency says North Korea produced more plutonium that it has declared

AP WorldStream via COMTEX ^ | 10-18-02 | By GEORGE JAHN

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VIENNA, Austria, Oct 18, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Pushing to establish the extent of North Korea's illegal nuclear weapons program, the head of the U.N. atomic agency on Friday said it could take three years for his inspectors to "see everything" - provided the reclusive communist country lets them in.

Responding to U.S. revelations of such a clandestine program, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said information on how far along the North Koreans were remained "murky."

North Korea probably has produced more plutonium - which can be used in nuclear warheads - over the past decade than it has declared, he told selected reporters.

It could be grams or kilograms," ElBaradei said, refusing to speculate on whether the North Koreans were near the eight-kilogram (17.6-pound) threshold needed for a nuclear weapon. "We need to go out and do a proper inspection to be able to estimate the amount."

The North Koreans told U.S. officials earlier this month that they no longer consider valid a 1994 agreement with the United States under which Pyongyang promised to renounce nuclear weapons in exchange for economic aid.

Administration officials announced Wednesday that the North Koreans had told them of a secret nuclear weapons program. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld subsequently told reporters at the Pentagon that he believes the North Koreans not only have a weapons program but have already produced some weapons.

ElBaradei said since 1993, outside inspectors have been only been given access to a scattering of facilities to verify that they are not producing weapons-grade material.

At Nyongbyon and Taechon, the IAEA team monitors activities at two nuclear power plants, a fuel rod manufacturing facility, a radiochemical laboratory, and a reactor. Only full and free inspections that go substantially beyond such limited access could establish the full scope of any North Korean nuclear weapons program, ElBaradei said.

The Vienna-based agency on Friday urged the North Korean government to send a negotiating team to the Austrian capital or allow an IAEA mission to visit to discuss "full compliance with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations."

With North Korea off limits for nearly a decade and traditionally more secretive than even Iraq, "we need three years possibly to come to the conclusion that we have seen everything," ElBaradei said.

The nuclear agency has held technical talks with the North Koreans twice a year over the past several years, but those meetings have not resulted in any serious consideration of inspections. North Korea withdrew its membership from the IAEA in 1994.

In September, the IAEA's general assembly adopted a resolution expressing its "serious concern" over North Korea's continued refusal to cooperate and verify that its nuclear energy program meets international safety guidelines.

North Korea also is suspected of having or pursuing biological and chemical weapons programs, and it has the long-range missiles capable of delivering such weapons, the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists said in a recent report.

On Iraq, ElBaradei said he expected inspectors searching for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons to go inside the country for onsite searches, "within the next few weeks," once a U.N. Security Council resolution is in place.

He said he expected the resolution will provide "unfettered access" for inspectors including entry to so-called presidential sites which have been off limits in past years.

ElBaradei said quick access both to Iraq and North Korea are equally urgent priorities.

He urged that the full weight of international pressure be brought to bear on both countries - including the "stick" of "international collective action" in the case of Iraq and the threat of economic sanctions against poverty-struck North Korea.

U.S. officials have said they believe a nuclear-armed North Korea could destabilize the region, because it could prompt Japan, China's historic rival, to carry out a military buildup of its own, forcing China to respond in kind.