Japan nuke fuel firm denies info leak over N. Korean uranium program+

TOKYO, Nov. 22 Kyodo - A Japanese company with uranium enrichment technology on Monday denied having leaked its expertise to North Korea in connection with the country's reported effort to enrich uranium using centrifuges.

North Korea has reportedly said it modeled its new nuclear program after the
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. plant in Rokkasho, a village in the northeastern
prefecture of Aomori.
''Enrichment technology has been strictly controlled in the company as nuclear
nonproliferation information and there are no facts corroborating a leak,'' an
official of Japan Nuclear Fuel said.
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which developed centrifuges and has provided
relevant technology to Japan Nuclear Fuel, also denied a leak, saying that its
information is strictly controlled and there are strict standards for
information disclosure.
The agency noted that because its staff members are regarded as civil servants
and therefore governed by confidentiality obligations, an information leak from
the body is ''impossible.''
According to Japan Nuclear Fuel, visits to its plant are limited to people
involved in operations, including those from electric power companies and
manufacturers.
Foreigners are only allowed in when their backgrounds are vouched for, such as
government officials from member states of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, according to the company.
In a report posted on the Internet on Saturday, a U.S. scientist said a North
Korean official told him on Nov. 12 that all components for the centrifuges at
a uranium enrichment facility in North Korea were domestically made ''but
modeled after the centrifuges at Almelo (in the Netherlands) and
Rokkasho-mura.''
==Kyodo