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A man claiming to be a former North Korean People's Army general who fled the impoverished state last year has told a Japanese publication that Pyongyang secretly imported nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union and developed dozens of its own weapons. The claims were among details about the Stalinist state's military command and its leader Kim Jong-Il contained in an article in the June edition of the respected Gekkan Gendai (Modern Times Monthly), based on an interview. The general told the magazine that North Korea secretly imported nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union in 1983 and now has...

May 14, 2003 Sources: N.Korean Defectors Smuggled Out of China By REUTERS Filed at 6:42 a.m. ET BEIJING (Reuters) - Several North Korean military defectors have fled their country and sought or been granted asylum in the West or in South Korea, independent sources said on Wednesday. Three sources told Reuters the defectors fled through China and traveled by plane, train or road on false identification papers to Southeast Asia in recent months. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of the defections, which could prove embarrassing for Beijing as it tries to facilitate negotiations between Washington and...

Hell On Earth (Translated from Original Korean): "Interview With Mr. Kim Duk Hong, High Ranking North Korean Defector"Kim Duk Hong is one of the highest ranking officials to defect from North Korea. He escaped from North Korea in 1997, first to Beijing and then to Seoul, along with Hwang Jang Yop, the architect of the North Korea regime's ideology known as "Juche," meaning "self reliance." Kim was Hwang's assistant for many years. He is officially barred from talking to the press by the (appeasing) South Korean government, however, FRONTLINE obtained this exclusive interview at an undisclosed location in South...

WASHINGTON ¡ª The U.S. government denied its involvement in the alleged defection of 20 high-profile North Koreans, including a nuclear scientist, but would neither confirm nor deny that the alleged defections took place. Australian media earlier reported that Kyong Won-ha, the nuclear scientist known to be the father of North Korea¡¯s nuclear program, had been smuggled out of the country along with other military officials over the past six months. Mr. Kyong was reportedly in the United States.In a daily press briefing Monday, Richard Boucher, spokesman of the U.S. State Department, denied reports that Washington paid for the establishment...

NORTH Korea has admitted the father of Pyongyang's nuclear program, Kyong Won-ha, had defected to the West last year, taking with him many of the secrets of the atomic program pioneered since 1984. Dr Kyong has been joined in exile by other North Korean officials, according to South Korea's JoongAng Daily newspaper. The communist state attempted to downplay Dr Kyong's importance to the regime, describing him as a not particularly important figure. A North Korean source quoted by the JoongAng Daily confirmed a report in The Weekend Australian, which revealed Dr Kyong's defection. "North Korean authorities discovered Dr Kyong's disappearance...

North aide says defector was only minor scientist BEIJING ¡ª A North Korean nuclear scientist who defected to the United States last year was not a particularly important figure, a senior North Korean source here said yesterday. The linked defections of the U.S.-trained nuclear scientist Kyong Won-ha and a number of military officials, organized privately by nationals of several nations, was reported over the weekend, and Dr. Kyong was described as a central figure in the North Korean nuclear program. ¡°North Korean authorities discovered Dr. Kyong¡¯s disappearance during the second half of last year,¡± the North Korean source said. ¡°As...

By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, April 21, 2003; Page A18 TOKYO, April 20 -- The United States and at least 10 other countries helped arrange the defections of up to 20 top North Korean officials, including key nuclear scientists, in an operation that began in October, according to an Australian newspaper. The Weekend Australian reported that a man it identified as the "father" of the North Korean nuclear program, Kyong Won Ha, was among the defectors and is providing intelligence information to Western officials. Kyong and the other officials had escaped to China and went on to...

Up to 20 high-ranking North Korean military officers and nuclear scientists have defected to the United States and its allies under a plan involving several countries including the Pacific state of Nauru, an Australian newspaper said on Saturday. The defections began last October after 11 countries agreed to provide consular protection to smuggle North Koreans from China, The Weekend Australian said. The man seen as the father of North Korea (news - web sites)'s nuclear program, Kyong Won-ha, was believed among the defectors, the newspaper said. It said a U.S.-based lawyer approached Nauru's former president, Rene Harris, with an offer...

Nuclear scientists 'defect' as North Korea defies AmericaFrom Elaine Monaghan in Washington NORTH KOREA has apparently thrown down the gauntlet in its nuclear standoff with the United States by claiming that it was reprocessing more than 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that could be used to make atomic bombs. The country’s Foreign Ministry said that the American-led war in Iraq had taught Pyongyang “it was necessary to have a powerful physical deterrent force”. “As we have already declared, we are successfully reprocessing more than 8,000 spent fuel rods at the final phase, as we sent interim information to the...

A SWATH of North Korea's military and scientific elite, among them key nuclear specialists, has defected to the US and its allies through a highly secret smuggling operation involving the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. The defections have taken place since last October and have been made possible through the help of 11 countries that agreed to provide consular protection to smuggle the targets from neighbouring China, according to sources close to the operation, which has now been wound up. Some countries also agreed to act as transit points for up to 30 days once the defectors left China, the...