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China blocks report on North Korea's new nuclear facility, UN diplomats say China is blocking the release of a report by a UN expert panel on the revelations of a new and highly sophisticated uranium enrichment plant in North Korea, according to Security Council diplomats. Many council members pushed for the publication of the report, arguing that all 192 UN member states should have access to its findings, according diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity. The report which found that Pyongyang is ignoring UN sanctions and continuing its nuclear enrichment program contains recommendations on how to improve Pyongyang’s compliance with...

Malicious computer virus accelerated, wrecked motors and may have decommissioned uranium enrichment centrifuges, think tank concludes. Talkbacks (10) The Stuxnet virus that has infected Iran’s nuclear installations may have been behind the decommissioning of 1,000 centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility earlier this year, according to a new analysis of the malicious software. Prepared by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, the paper raised the possibility that the reported breakage of 1,000 centrifuges was caused by the virus. According to the paper, the timing of the removal of 1,000 centrifuges was consistent with a statement made last...

Review U.S. policy toward North Korea By Robert Carlin and John W. Lewis Monday, November 22, 2010; While the United States has stood aside, hoping time and circumstances would force North Korea to accede to demands for denuclearization, the North has forged ahead with its own plans. Near-universal skepticism greeted Pyongyang's announcement last year that it intended to build a light-water reactor and perfect enrichment technology to fuel it. Not two weeks ago, while visiting the nuclear center at Yongbyon during a four-day trip to North Korea, we saw that the North had begun construction of a light-water reactor that...

Satellite Image Shows Building Containing Centrifuges in North Korea by David Albright and Paul Brannan November 21, 2010 Dr. Siegfried Hecker of Stanford University released a report on November 21, 2010 detailing his recent visit to the Yongbyon nuclear site in North Korea. Hecker describes his visit to a building containing 2,000 gas centrifuges located on the site of the fuel fabrication facility at Yongbyon dedicated, according to his hosts, to producing low enriched uranium (LEU). He notes that the building is approximately 120 meters long and has a blue roof. ISIS assesses that this building can be seen in...

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss man suspected of being involved in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring claims he supplied the CIA with information that led to the breakup of the black market nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In a documentary airing Thursday on Swiss TV station SF1, Urs Tinner says he tipped off U.S. intelligence about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya's nuclear weapons program. The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. The 43-year-old Tinner...

Iranian construction of a previously secret uranium enrichment site is at an advanced stage, with high-tech equipment already in place at the fortified facility ahead of its 2011 startup, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Monday. The revelation of the existence of the underground plant known as Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, has heightened concerns of other possible undeclared Iranian facilities that are not subject to IAEA oversight and therefore could be used for military purposes. In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the IAEA report "underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully...

As a Presidential candidate, Barack Obama called a nuclear Iran "a grave threat" and insisted "the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." But he also called for direct, high-level talks in the hopes that the mullahs could be persuaded to abandon their nuclear dreams. We've never held out much hope for those talks, which would inevitably be complicated and protracted. Now it turns out that the rate at which Iran's nuclear programs are advancing may render even negotiations moot. That's one conclusion to be drawn from the latest report by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. Among...

via translation - ALERT - Nuclear: Iran has 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran had 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment activities, confirming that the Islamic Republic has expanded its controversial nuclear programme, reported state radio.

Pakistan's Military Knew Of Nuclear Technology Transfer To N Korea, Says Scientist 7/4/2008 2:52 PM ET Abdul Qadir Khan, who is considered to be the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, said on Friday that the country's former military regime was aware of the transfer of nuclear technology to North Korea. AQ Khan told media on Friday that the Pakistani army, which was headed by President Pervez Musharraf then, was aware of the technology transfer as the uranium enrichment equipment was dispatched onboard a North Korean plane under the supervision of Pakistani army officials in 2000. Khan's statements on Friday contradicts...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president says Iran has begun installing 6,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the work on state television on Tuesday. Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz. The new announcement is seen as a show of defiance of international demands to halt a nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies say the program is aimed at building nuclear weapons. Iran denies those allegations.

VIENNA, Austria - Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced machines reflecting a possible intention to speed up uranium enrichment, diplomats have told The Associated Press. ADVERTISEMENT One diplomat said more than 300 of the centrifuges have been linked up in two separate units in Iran's underground enrichment plant and a third was being assembled. He said the machines apparently are more advanced than the thousands already running underground, suggesting they could be the sophisticated IR-2 centrifuge that Tehran recently acknowledged testing. But a senior diplomat said that while the new work appeared to include advanced centrifuges, they were not IR-2s....

Iran is operating a newer, more advanced centrifuge at the country's Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, a State Department official who works on arms control and WMD issues has confirmed to FOX News. U.S. officials were trying to determine the origin of the new centrifuges. To enrich uranium to the high levels needed for a nuclear weapon, centrifuges are assembled in groups of 164 — known as "cascades." Mastery of a single cascade is an extremely difficult process, but once that is achieved it is fairly easy for an industrialized country to attain a nuclear weapons capability because it...

Iran Produces 300 Tons of UF6 in Isfahan Nuclear Facility January 27, 2008 Xinhua Yan Liang TEHRAN -- Deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Javad Vaeedi said on Sunday that his country has so far produced 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6)gas used for uranium enrichment in the Isfahan nuclear facility. Addressing a congregation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Vaeedi said "The Isfahan uranium conversion facilityis active and it has produced more than 300 tons of UF6," local Fars news agency reported. He said that despite pressures by Western countries which once stressed that Iran should...

Aghazadeh: Iran plans to install 50,000 centrifuges TEHRAN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Gholamreza Aghazadeh said on Tuesday that Iran plans to install 50,000 centrifuges, the official IRNA news agency reported. "We have plans to install 50,000 centrifuges," Aghazadeh was quoted by IRNA as saying in an interview. Asked about why he had not declared inauguration of 3,000 centrifuges at a ceremony held at Natanz on Monday to mark National Day of Nuclear Technology, he said he was concerned that mentioning numbers would cause ambiguity that Iran has plans for just 3,000 centrifuges. "When we...

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian nuclear agency official has denied claims made by a top lawmaker that the Islamic Republic had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges at an uranium enrichment plant, Iran's state-run news agency reported late Saturday. Hossein Simorgh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization public relations department, said "no new centrifuges have been installed in Natanz," referring to the nuclear facility in central Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Earlier Saturday, lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran was currently installing the 3,000 centrifuges, underlining that the country would continue to develop its disputed nuclear program despite U.N. sanctions....

Iran 'steps up' nuclear programme Iran has begun installing 3,000 nuclear centrifuges in defiance of UN calls to halt its uranium enrichment programme, a senior parliamentarian has said. "God willing it will be finished in due time," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the national security committee. ... On Friday Iran demanded the removal of the UN official in charge of inspecting the country's nuclear programme. Read more

NEW YORK: In what diplomats described as an attempt to strengthen its bargaining position, Iran launched a new round of nuclear enrichment as the Europeans were presenting a package of incentive in return for Tehran giving up its programme, the UN nuclear watchdog agency said. In a report sent to the agency's 35-member board, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed Elbaradei said Iran had started feeding uranium gas (UF6 gas) into cascade of 164 centrifuge machines on Tuesday after a five-week break. In addition, the report said Iran is also continuing the work of installation two...

WASHINGTON -- Just when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) thought it had its hands around the Iranian nuclear program, NewsMax has learned from intelligence sources that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is completing a secret, underground uranium enrichment plant that should begin operating in October 2006. Work on the new plant, located 50 miles outside the northeastern Iranian city of Mashad, was begun with help from Russian engineers in 2003, Iranian intelligence sources said. The facility has been built 150 meters below ground in a rugged highlands valley some 38 kilometers southeast of the city of Nishabour. The nearest inhabited...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president has thrown a new wrinkle into the nuclear debate by claiming his country is testing a centrifuge that could be used to more speedily create fuel for power plants or atomic weapons. But some analysts familiar with the country's technology said Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be deliberately exaggerating Iran's capabilities, either to boost his own political support or to persuade the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to back off.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Thursday that Iran won't back away from uranium enrichment and said the world must treat Iran as a nuclear power. The comments were made as Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for talks aimed at defusing tensions over Iran's nuclear program. "Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase. We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "We won't hold talks...

Iran is now operating a 10-centrifuge cascade for uranium enrichment as it makes progress on its nuclear program, diplomats told AFP Friday ahead of a key UN nuclear report next week. The upcoming report from the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "will confirm that Iran is now running 10 centrifuges" with a feedstock gas used to manufacture enriched uranium, a diplomat said. Enriched uranium can be fuel for nuclear power reactors or the raw material for atom bombs.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran has secretly built thousands of centrifuge machines for its nuclear plant at Natanz, an exiled opposition figure alleged. ADVERTISEMENT The claims by opposition figure Alireza Jafarzadeh could not be independently verified, but if confirmed, they would likely enflame the worsening standoff over Iran's nuclear program. The new allegations came hours after Iran resumed sensitive nuclear research after a two-year suspension, triggering fierce Western condemnation and risking censure by the UN Security Council. Jafarzadeh, citing what he said was intelligence from the Iranian opposition and sources within the Iranian nuclear program, said Tehran had already committed serious...

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgian police working with the FBI discovered dangerous substances in the house of the suspect who admitted throwing a live grenade toward President Bush at a rally in Tbilisi in May, officials said Wednesday. Sergo Dzagnidze, chief of the criminal police department at the Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press that 5 gallons of sulfuric acid, several boxes of mercury thermometers, a centrifuge, a microscope and other devices and dangerous chemicals were found in the cellar. The suspect, Vladimir Arutyunian, was detained last week after a police shootout. He was charged Tuesday with terrorism over the...

/begin my translation Cruise Missile Technology Leaked from Iran to N. Korea? Entire Japan Could be Within RangeFormer Ukrainian regime sold it (to Iran)Sankei Shimbun 2005/06/26 morning issue A speculation arose on June 25 that the technology of long-range cruise missile, Kh-55, sold to Iran by former Ukrainian regime under Kuchma, was transferred to N. Korea. Multiple sources from (Japanese) government and the ruling party admitted it. Kh-55 can mount nuclear warhead, and, if N. Korea deploys it, the entire Japan would be within range. (Japanese) government is stepping up to improve missile defense(MD) against N. Korean ballistic missiles, but it cannot...

Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators. The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale. Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have been investigating the worst...

Iran Preparing for Advanced Nuclear Work, Officials Say By Douglas Frantz Times Staff Writer Thu Jun 9, 7:55 AM ET ISTANBUL, Turkey — Iran has plans to install tens of thousands of advanced centrifuges at its huge underground nuclear plant near the central city of Natanz, which eventually would enable the nation to enrich uranium nearly twice as fast as anticipated, Western intelligence officials say. The officials say there is no hard evidence that Iran is currently manufacturing the updated centrifuges and that the timetable for installation remains unknown. However, preparatory work is underway at the plant, they said in...

TOKYO, June 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has imported about 150 tons of high-strength aluminum from an unidentified Russian exporter as part of its nuclear weapons program, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday, citing U.S. intelligence sources. The amount of high-strength aluminum is enough to produce about 2,600 gas centrifuges used to enrich uranium, the report explained. Identifying the U.S. sources simply as former ranking Washington officials and officials involved in the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, the Japanese paper said such moves by the North have further escalated the international standoff over its nuclear ambition. Separately, Pyongyang is known to...

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 27 May 2005 0312 hrs Pakistan hands over centrifuge parts to UN nuclear watchdog for Iran tests(a major development?) ISLAMABAD : In a major turnaround, Pakistan confirmed it has sent some parts of an old centrifuge to the UN atomic agency to help it establish whether Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requested the parts in connection with its investigations to determine whether contamination found at Iran's nuclear facilities had come from Pakistan or any other source, a foreign ministry official said. "Components of an...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi scientist killed in the U.S. invasion and now linked by arms hunter David Kay to possible nuclear weapons research was working on an advanced gun, not atomic bombs, fellow physicists say. They and eyewitnesses also say Khalid Ibrahim Sa'id was killed not when he tried to "run a roadblock," as asserted by Kay, but when a U.S. tank crew blasted his civilian car without warning on an open street. These accounts of the physicist's research and death, provided by 10 Iraqis and supported on key points by U.N. arms inspectors, challenge a core element of...

http://ktla.trb.com/news/nationworld/world/ktla-fg-network22apr22-lat,0,4148673.story?coll=ktla-news-1April 22, 2005 Vital Nuclear Parts Missing Investigators worry that some components of a weapons factory ordered by Libya have fallen into the hands of another nation. By Douglas Frantz, Times Staff WriterZURICH, Switzerland ? Critical components and specialized tools destined for Libya's nuclear weapons program disappeared before arrival in 2003 and international investigators now suspect that they were diverted to another country, according to court records and investigators. Efforts to find the missing equipment have led to dead ends, raising what investigators said was the strong likelihood that the sophisticated material was sold to an unidentified customer by...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 12 - In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting. The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery...

Pakistan Admits Rogue Scientist Aided Iran By MUNIR AHMAD The Associated Press ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Lawmakers from hardline Islamic groups and moderate opposition parties Friday walked out of the lower house of parliament to protest a startling admission from a Cabinet minister that a top Pakistani nuclear scientist sold centrifuges to Iran. In a rare admission, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday said Abdul Qadeer Khan sold the centrifuges to Tehran but insisted that the government was not aware of his activities. "Dr. Abdul Qadeer gave some centrifuges to Iran," Ahmed told The Associated Press in a telephone interview....

<p>A key Iraqi scientist recently told the CIA that high-strength aluminum tubes bought by Baghdad weren't meant for nuclear bomb production, as President Bush suggested in his State of the Union address, two experts on Iraq's nuclear program say.</p> <p>Mahdi Shukur Obeidi, who headed a uranium-enrichment unit vital to Iraq's pre-1991 bomb plans, "also said that since '91 they hadn't resurrected a nuclear weapon program," according to ex-Iraq inspector David Albright, an American physicist who acted as go-between for Obeidi to talk to U.S. authorities a few weeks ago.</p>

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - Scientific tests have led American intelligence agencies and government scientists to conclude with near certainty that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, bolstering earlier indications that the reclusive state exported sensitive fuel for atomic weapons, according to officials with access to the intelligence. The determination, which has circulated among senior government officials in recent weeks, has touched off a hunt to determine if North Korea has also sold uranium to other countries, including Iran and Syria. So far, there is no evidence that such additional transactions took place. Nonetheless, the conclusion about the uranium transfer...

When experts from the US and the IAEA came upon blueprints for a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the files of the Libyan weapons program earlier this year, they found themselves caught between gravity and pettiness. The discovery gave the experts a new appreciation of the audacity of the rogue nuclear network led by A. Q. Khan, a chief architect of Pakistan's bomb. Intelligence officials had watched Dr. Khan for years and suspected that he was trafficking in machinery for enriching uranium to make fuel for warheads. But the detailed design represented a new level of danger, particularly since the Libyans...

BERN, Switzerland - Prosecutors on Wednesday opened an investigation into two Swiss citizens suspected of illegally exporting nuclear-bomb-making technology to Libya, a spokesman for the prosecutors office said. The spokesman, Hansjuerg Mark Wiedmer, declined to identify the suspects. But one investigative source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one was Swiss engineer Urs Tinner, who was arrested in Germany last week. The Swiss agency that polices adherence to international sanctions disclosed in February that it had opened an investigation to determine whether Tinner had broken Swiss law by making precision parts in Malaysia that were destined for Libya. He is...

The Iraqi physicist who ran his country's uranium enrichment program says that Saddam Hussein continued to fund efforts to develop nuclear weapons right up until the U.S. invasion in March 2003. ... In an interview with WABC Radio's John Gambling, the Iraqi centrifuge scientist said he was ordered to keep his nuclear bombmaking research concealed from U.N. weapons inspectors.

This past Sunday, James Carville mocked the discovery of buried uranium-enrichment equipment in the backyard of Shukur Ubaydi – a key leader of Iraq's drive to obtain nuclear weapons prior to the 1991 Gulf War. Carville derided the centrifuge parts as looking like "a carburetor some redneck would have in his garage." NBC's Russert did not challenge Carville on this astonishing display of partisanship dressed up as ignorance, but the statement revealed a great deal about Democratic strategy on the WMD debate that has already begun: Deny the relevance and importance of every piece of evidence, and assert that nothing...

Iran Vows to Resume Building Centrifuges TEHRAN, Iran — Iran (search) will resume building centrifuges for its nuclear program on Tuesday despite international objections, but will continue to hold off enriching uranium, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday. The announcement came days after the U.N. nuclear watchdog approved a European-drafted resolution that rebuked Iran for past cover-ups in its nuclear program.

Krakow, Poland-AP -- A new report by the U-N atomic agency says Iran has acknowledged importing parts for centrifuges that can be used to enrich uranium. The Associated Press has obtained a copy of a confidential report prepared for a meeting late this month of the the U-N agency's 35-nation board. It credits Iran with more openness about its nuclear program, but says the agency still has questions about nearly two decades of secret activities. The report also says Iran has continued production of centrifuge components at three workshops belonging to private companies. That, despite the country's declaration it would...

There was no breakthrough, no eureka, no flash of insight. It happened slowly, the advances gradual until what Dr. Gernot Zippe and his colleagues had invented was a compact, almost elegant device for collecting uranium's rare U-235 isotope. The feat might have remained obscure, except that it helped define the nuclear era: by the 1960's, Zippe-type machines had become the easiest way to make fuel for reactors as well as weapons of terrifying power, for lighting cities or destroying them. The invention was the uranium centrifuge, and around the world, millions of them now spin in high-security plants often ringed...

A physics professor will try to turn back time in an experiment at the Miami Museum of Science. It's back to the future all over again -- at least, that's what Carlos Dolz has in mind. The Florida International University physics professor plans to take time to task at 10 a.m. Wednesday, when he presents an experiment that involves using acceleration to speed up a digital clock by four seconds. Dolz's experiment -- which takes six hours to finish -- will become part of Playing With Time, the current exhibit at the Miami Museum of Science. Dolz, who has been...

<p>United Nations inspectors have found sophisticated uranium-enrichment machinery at an air force base outside Iran's capital, Tehran, U.S. and foreign sources with knowledge of the discovery say.</p> <p>The find at Doshen-Tappen air base appears to undermine Iran's claim it is not pursuing a nuclear bomb. The discovery may strengthen calls for action by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.</p>

Malaysian company being investigated for role in supplying nuclear technology to Libya, police say KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A Malaysian company controlled by the son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is being investigated for possibly supplying machine parts bound for Libya's nuclear weapons programs, the national police chief said. Inspector General of Police Mohamed Bakri Omar said Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn. Bhd., or SCOPE, a subsidiary of Scomi Group Bhd., built centrifuge components that international intelligence agencies say were headed for Libya late last year. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium for a variety of purposes, including...

nothing furthur breaking

Urenco Releases Statement on Iranian Centrifuge Technology 11/28/03 9:37:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and International desk Contact: Mr. A J Moore of Urenco Limited, 44 (0) 16-28-40-22-65 or ajm@urenco.com MARLOW, United Kingdom., Nov. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is a statement of Urenco on Iranian Centrifuge Technology: In a recent US publication, reference has been made to enrichment technology from Urenco. Urenco has never carried out business with any government, business or other entity in Iran. Urenco would like to strongly affirm that they have never supplied any technology or components to Iran at any time. Urenco's technology...

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Two government ministers in the Netherlands acknowledged Monday that highly sensitive nuclear technology developed by a Dutch company may have been transferred to Libya and North Korea along with Iran and Pakistan. The disclosure in Parliament in Amsterdam marked the first public confirmation of assertions that centrifuge technology for enriching uranium apparently found its way to Libya and North Korea. It was already known that Pakistan and Iran had the technology. The Dutch officials, Foreign Minister Bernard Bot and Economic Affairs Minister Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst, said it was not clear how the potentially arms-related technology had been transferred....

WASHINGTON: Under tremendous pressure from the United States, Islamabad’s ruling dispensation appears to be zeroing in on Pakistan’s national hero, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, as the source of nuclear proliferation. Several people, perhaps up to 25, included some of Khan’s closest aides, have been detained in recent days. Some of them have been dragged out of their homes kicking and screaming, according to family members who have spoken to the Pakistani media. Khan himself has been treated more circumspectly, but he has also been questioned exhaustively and further steps against him seem imminent. The military government already seems to be...

Officials have confirmed that a German-flagged ship was carrying parts to build a nuclear bomb from a Persian Gulf country to Libya in October. Investigators seized the shipment before it reached its destination. Just a few months before Libya declared it would cease its efforts to create weapons of mass destruction, American and British agents seized a German freighter ship loaded with centrifuges and other parts that are used to create enriched uranium, the material needed to build nuclear bombs. The seizure is believed to have influenced Tripoli’s decision to suspend its weapons program last month. On Wednesday, U.S. State...

HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) - A former North Korean diplomat is accused of ordering material from a German firm that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, Germany's Der Spiegel reported in its Monday edition. The news magazine said a German businessman would go on trial in Stuttgart, southwest Germany, next month in connection with the case. The diplomat was named by Spiegel as Yun Ho Jin. It said he used to work as a Pyongyang representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. According to Der Spiegel, Yun Ho Jin ordered special aluminium tubes from...