U.S. has evidence of N.K. nuke exports to Libya

Korea Herald ^ | Thursday, April 7, 2005 | Choi Soung-ah

[nickcarraway]

The United States has clear evidence North Korea exported nuclear material to Libya through a Pakistani broker, chief U.S. negotiator to the six-party talks Christopher Hill said yesterday.

"We do have evidence that what arrived in Libya was actually of North Korean origin," Hill said during a 90-minute panel discussion with the Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea, "We believe it was brokered through Pakistan with the (North Korean) knowledge that it would end up in Libya.

He answered a barrage of questions from the panel of three civic activist groups on a recent U.S. media report which claimed Pyongyang did not export uranium hexafluoride - which can be enriched to make fissile material for nuclear weapons - to Libya. The report raised eyebrows about the reliability of Washington's intelligence capabilities.

Citing what the United States considers a range of "reliable sources" from human and technical intelligence, Hill said, "Our point is it got to Libya from North Korea through a broker. And, that it was not exported to another government.

"For example, no one is saying the government of Pakistan was involved. What they're saying is a well known international broker of nuclear materials brought it to Libya from North Korea."

Stressing that Pyongyang's past record of engaging in sales of illegal items such as nuclear and nonnuclear weapons material throughout the world in order to raise currency must be kept in mind, Hill said the "broker" is believed to have been the A. Q. Khan network. A.Q. Khan was the disgraced former head of Pakistan's nuclear program.

"North Korea has purchased equipment highly consistent with highly enriched uranium (HEU)," he said. "North Korea, which is having difficulties in making tractors work, has been making purchases of specialized, very expensive equipment whose purpose one has to believe, is to have a HEU program."

Hill attended a ceremony yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Yongsan Garrison marking his impending departure as ambassador to Korea and his new job as assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs.

In his new post, he will head the U.S. delegation to the stalled six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear standoff. Also involved in the talks are the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.

"I've been working on the six-party process since I was named to that in the middle of February ... I must say, as someone who has been in negotiations before and someone who looks forward to making concrete or real results and not just talking, I must say I've been so far a little disappointed by this role because we don't have a negotiation going," Hill said.

"But I want to emphasize that we do really believe, the United States does really believe, in the six-party process. We feel this is the right format to address the problem of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs."

Hill also said the United States - which has been the number one food aid provider in the 90s - continues to give great amounts to the communist country, regardless of the nuclear issue.

"Our food assistance to North Korea does not depend on the progress of the six-party talks. Our conditions for food aid to North Korea are three: first, we need to determine the need for the food aid in North Korea; second, we need to determine competing needs elsewhere, in Africa, and etcetera; and three, we need to look at our ability to ensure that the food aid gets to the people that need it.

Hill will be traveling between Seoul and Washington over the next few weeks until June since the U.S. State

[endthematrix]

"Khan was the disgraced former head of Pakistan's nuclear program. "

Has Khan been "disgraced" by Pakistan? Isn't he still in high esteem of being the Pak builder of the the bomb?

[C210N]

This coming just a few weeks after reports that NK nuclear exports would constitute the tripping wire of action against NK.

[sukhoi-30mki]

What did the poor man do???follow orders??