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--I thought this story from March might be relevent here)

North Korea hiding nukes in underground bunkers

Special to World Tribune.com
GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT
Thursday, March 28, 2002

North Korea continues to conceal nuclear weapons and fissile material, U.S. officials said.

North Korean nuclear facility at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang. [Click here to zoom] For other images of this facility, see Institute for Science and International Security

The Bush administration has obtained information indicating that North Korea possesses at least three nuclear bombs as well as an undetermined amount of fissile material. The officials said the material is being stored in underground bunkers kept off-limits to both the United States or the International Atomic Energy Agency.
North Korea, the officials said, has refused to allow the IAEA to conduct a full inspection of the nuclear facility at Yongbyon north of Pyongyang. The Kim Jong Il regime may have used Yongbyon and other facilities for tests on the weaponization of long-range missiles capable of reaching the United States.
The officials said the administration has decided not to certify that North Korea has complied with a 1994 accord with the Clinton administration in which Pyongyang pledged to suspend its nuclear weapons program. The agreement led to a U.S. promise to supply North Korea with two nuclear power reactors in a $4.6 billion project.
The Bush administration also wants to link the nuclear power project to an end to North Korean missile exports which have continued. Pyongyang is regarded as the leading missile exporter to the Middle East, including such clients as Egypt, Iran, Libya and Syria, according to reports from Middle East Newsline.
Meanwhile, Iran is preparing to accept delivery of North Korean gunboats, which will be converted into guided-missile naval vessels.
U.S. intelligence sources said the boats could arrive on an Iranian freighter within the next week. They said the United States is monitoring the shipment of the gunboats from North Korea to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
The Washington Times reported that the Iranian freighter, Meead, obtained the gunboats from the North Korean port of Nampo after stopping in the Chinese port of Tianjin in late February.
North Korea manufactures several model fast attack vessels. They include the SO-1 and the Sinpo.
The North Korean shipment to Iran is said to be at least the second this year from East Asia to Teheran. In January, China delivered naval air defense missiles to Iran. The missiles were said to have a range of nearly 13 kilometers.
The U.S. sources said Iran has been bolstering its navy to counter the prospect of an expanded U.S. presence in the Persian Gulf. The sources said that despite the war in Afghanistan, which borders Iran, Teheran still has the power to block oil exports from the Persian Gulf.
Teheran is believed to have deployed Chinese guided-missile patrol boats equipped with anti-ship missiles as well as two Russian Kilo-class diesel submarines. Iran has also produced mini-submarines for reconnaissance and sabotage missions.
Over the weekend, Iranian military commanders again warned that Teheran would confront any U.S. attack. The commanders said Iran has developed a range of unspecified weapons.
"We are not for war, but we will stand up against the enemy should the need arise," Iranian naval chief Brig. Gen. Morteza Saffari told senior commanders

North Korea Running Nuclear Weapons Program, U.S. Says
By REUTERS

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 - In a stunning development that opens up the possibility of a new crisis in Asia, North Korea, confronted with U.S. "evidence," has acknowledged it is operating a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement, senior U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

One official told Reuters that the Bush administration believed North Korea's activities had "effectively nullified the 1994 Agreed Framework," a deal under which the reclusive Communist state promised to freeze its nuclear arms program.

But the officials said the administration was consulting with Congress and allies and had made no decision on the next steps in its relations with North Korea, which has made clear it wants more cooperation with the international community.

President George W. Bush and his administration entered office far more skeptical of Pyongyang than their predecessors in President Bill Clinton's administration.

Bush has included North Korea with Iran and Iraq in what he termed an "axis of evil" of states developing weapons of mass destruction and backing international terrorism.

But while some hard-liners on Bush's team have long looked for ways to scuttle the 1994 accord, analysts said he may be forced to find a way to keep talking to Pyongyang.

Allies Japan and South Korea have been much more willing to work with North Korea.

U.S. officials said that on a recent trip to Pyongyang, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly presented the North Koreans with documentation about the nuclear activities.

At first the North Koreans balked but eventually "they acknowledged they had a secret nuclear weapons program involving enriched uranium," one official said.

"By acknowledging that, the agreed framework was essentially nullified," he said.

Officials said they could not provide much detail without compromising intelligence sources and methods but once said, "Clearly it's a program that would have provided material that could have been used in nuclear weapons."

Rumsfeld raps North Korea for possessing 'nuclear weapons'

September 16, 2002

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday said Pyongyang has ''nuclear weapons'' in its military arsenal, citing alleged North Korean exports of missile technologies as an example at a news briefing at the Pentagon.

''We do know that they (North Korea) are one of the world's worst proliferators, particularly with ballistic missile technologies. We know they're a country that has been aggressively developing nuclear weapons and has nuclear weapons,'' Rumsfeld said.

The U.S. government, however, rectified his remarks later as they lacked clear evidences

. Rumsfeld met Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi before appearing at the Pentagon news briefing, but a Japanese official said North Korea did not come up for discussion.

The Kawaguchi-Rumsfeld meeting came on the eve of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Rumsfeld was responding to a question whether the U.S. would consider taking military action against North Korea and Iran, as Washington had done against Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush has branded the three countries as an ''axis of evil.''

Questioned on the status of U.S. policy toward the three countries, Rumsfeld said he sees a ''different situation'' in each of the three countries.

Rumsfeld also sought to distinguish North Korea from Iraq in terms of being a security threat to neighboring countries.

''We know they're a danger first and foremost to their own people, and second, they're a threat principally because of their proliferating activities, as opposed to being a threat to South Korea,'' Rumsfeld said.

The Central Intelligence Agency has said the U.S. intelligence community has judged in the mid-1990s that North Korea had produced one, possibly two, nuclear weapons.