N. Korea Conducted 140 Nuclear Detonation Tests: Expert

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SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has successfully completed testing a triggering device for an atomic bomb, a North Korea expert here said Thursday.
According to Chun Sung-hoon, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, the North has secured between 24.5 kilograms to 39.5 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium as of July 2003.
The North has also conducted at least 140 high-explosives tests, according to the South Korean researcher. A high explosive is a detonation device for a conventional explosive that triggers the explosion of an atomic bomb.
His claims came in the spring edition of the National Strategy, a quarterly magazine published by the state-run Sejong Institute.
Chung was scheduled to repeat his claims in a discussion session to be held later in the day at the National Assembly Memorial Hall. The session comes as part of a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Yoido Institute, a think tank of the main opposition Grand National Party.
Chun claimed the North conducted some 70 detonation tests between 1983 and 1994 when the first North Korean nuclear standoff ended with an agreement with the United States, also known as the 1994 Agreed Framework.
The North resumed testing of detonation devices in 1997 and completed 70 explosion tests by September 2002, he claimed. The second and ongoing standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program erupted that year when the United States accused Pyongyang of running a clandestine nuclear weapons program based on highly enriched uranium.
The North announced in February that it possesses nuclear weapons and will boycott six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff.
Seoul and Washington were initially shocked at the announcement, but soon claimed the North cannot be considered a nuclear state, arguing that there has been no verification of its nuclear capability such as a nuclear test.
The South Korean researcher, however, claimed the North may have already produced one or two nuclear bombs with yields equivalent to what he called "first generation" atomic weapons, but do not require nuclear tests.
"A U.S. claim that the North may have developed a nuclear device based on simple nuclear fission that does not require an actual nuclear test is gaining more credibility because the North has been continuously carrying out these high-explosive tests over a number of years," he said in the article.

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