AQ(Khan) gave centrifuges to North Korea

Nation, Pakistan ^

[milestogo]

AQ gave centrifuges to North Korea

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed that nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with centrifuges and their designs, his spokesman said Wednesday.
But military ruler Musharraf, who made the statement to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, added that the equipment handed over by Dr Khan did not in itself give the Stalinist state a nuclear weapons capability.
“Yes, he passed centrifuges - parts and complete. I do not exactly remember the number,” Musharraf said when asked about reports that Islamabad had told Tokyo that Khan provided North Korea with about 20 centrifuges.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan confirmed the president had made the comments.
In February 2004, Dr Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, admitted selling atomic secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran. He said he acted without government or military support.
Dr Khan is already known to have supplied Tehran and Tripoli with centrifuge parts. Centrifuges are used for producing enriched uranium, which can be fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors or the raw material for nuclear bombs.

Isolated North Korea declared in June that it has a stockpile of nuclear weapons and is producing more.
President Musharraf said Dr Khan’s help would not have been decisive for North Korea’s efforts to become a nuclear power, because he was not involved in other crucial areas of technology.
“So if North Korea has made a bomb... Dr AQ Khan’s part is only enriching the uranium to weapons grade,” Musharraf told Kyodo. 
“He does not know about making the bomb, he does not know about the trigger mechanism, he does not know about the delivery system.”
Pakistan has consistently refused to let international investigators question Khan. The scientist has been officially pardoned by Musharraf but he has remained under virtual house arrest since late 2003.
However, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said Pakistan had already informed the UN nuclear agency and other “affected” countries about the centrifuges, and he too played down the importance of the equipment.
“Saying that someone made a bomb because Dr Khan passed on a couple of centrifuges to them, maybe a dozen of them, this does not mean they can make a bomb,” he told AFP.
Six-party nuclear talks on denuclearising the Korean peninsula, also involving the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan, are due to resume in the week of August 29.

On Monday the International Atomic Energy Agency said that enriched uranium particles found in Iran were from smuggled Pakistani centrifuges, backing Iran’s claims that it is not involved in enrichment work.
The United States says such activity would show that Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

[podkane]

There are plenty of culprits in the NK nuclear scandal. Isn't Pakistan our ally? However, when we meet the enemy, and he is US, there's really not much use pointing blame.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,952289,00.html

[muleskinner]

KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!

[rbg81]

Forget about Chavez. This guy is the real threat. Its probably a little late at this point, though.