ID :
158384
Sat, 01/29/2011 - 22:47
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https://www.oananews.org//node/158384
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U.N. committee receives report on N. Korean nuclear facility
U.N. committee receives report on N. Korean nuclear facility+
NEW YORK, Jan. 28 Kyodo - The U.N. committee on North Korean sanctions on Friday received a report by nuclear experts verifying the country's claims about its new uranium enrichment facility as well as a light-water reactor said to be under construction, Portuguese officials said.
The sanctions committee will discuss the report, the contents of which were not disclosed, next week or beyond, the officials said. Portugal chairs the committee.
According to diplomatic sources, the report said North Korea's explanations about the secret facility at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to Siegfried Hecker, former chief of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, during a visit to the country last November seem mostly likely the truth, although it stopped short of accepting the claims with 100 percent certainty.
Hecker earlier said North Korea told him that 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running at the facility in Yongbyon, about 90 kilometers north of Pyongyang, and that low-enriched uranium produced there is for the purpose of generating electricity.
The report, consisting of some 20 pages, was compiled by an expert panel chiefly based on an informal video conference with Hecker in December, meetings with government officials of Japan and South Korea when its members visited those countries this month, and past reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The panel has likely concluded that there is no inconsistency between Pyongyang's claims about the uranium enrichment facility in operation and what Hecker was actually shown, according to the sources.
It also sees North Korea's explanations about low-enriched uranium for power generation as reasonable because it would be much easier for the country to produce nuclear bombs with plutonium, the sources said.
At the same time, the report apparently showed concerns about technology proliferation, noting that the facility can be converted into one to produce highly-enriched uranium for military purposes, they said.
It also mostly agreed with the doubts expressed by Hecker about North Korea's claims that all parts and equipment at the facility were domestically manufactured, the sources added.
The panel comprises experts and academics representing the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as Japan and South Korea.
NEW YORK, Jan. 28 Kyodo - The U.N. committee on North Korean sanctions on Friday received a report by nuclear experts verifying the country's claims about its new uranium enrichment facility as well as a light-water reactor said to be under construction, Portuguese officials said.
The sanctions committee will discuss the report, the contents of which were not disclosed, next week or beyond, the officials said. Portugal chairs the committee.
According to diplomatic sources, the report said North Korea's explanations about the secret facility at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to Siegfried Hecker, former chief of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, during a visit to the country last November seem mostly likely the truth, although it stopped short of accepting the claims with 100 percent certainty.
Hecker earlier said North Korea told him that 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running at the facility in Yongbyon, about 90 kilometers north of Pyongyang, and that low-enriched uranium produced there is for the purpose of generating electricity.
The report, consisting of some 20 pages, was compiled by an expert panel chiefly based on an informal video conference with Hecker in December, meetings with government officials of Japan and South Korea when its members visited those countries this month, and past reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The panel has likely concluded that there is no inconsistency between Pyongyang's claims about the uranium enrichment facility in operation and what Hecker was actually shown, according to the sources.
It also sees North Korea's explanations about low-enriched uranium for power generation as reasonable because it would be much easier for the country to produce nuclear bombs with plutonium, the sources said.
At the same time, the report apparently showed concerns about technology proliferation, noting that the facility can be converted into one to produce highly-enriched uranium for military purposes, they said.
It also mostly agreed with the doubts expressed by Hecker about North Korea's claims that all parts and equipment at the facility were domestically manufactured, the sources added.
The panel comprises experts and academics representing the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as Japan and South Korea.
