S. Korea bolsters task force to deal with N. Korean nuke threat

SEOUL, May 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has expanded its nuclear task force to deal
with North Korea's warning that it will conduct a second nuclear test, a foreign
ministry official said Monday.

The ministry added non-governmental nuclear experts and government officials to
the ad hoc unit launched in April last year so as to strengthen its technical
analysis, the ministry official said, requesting anonymity.
The expanded task force, led by Seoul's deputy chief envoy to nuclear disarmament
talks, Hwang Joon-kook, includes officials from the ministries of foreign
affairs, national defense and unification, the National Intelligence Service and
the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae as well as think tank experts and
scholars, the official said.
"The new task force will deal with all technological issues concerning North
Korea's nuclear program," the official said.
"In particular, its mission includes sharing information about North Korea's move
toward reprocessing (spent fuel rods) and a nuclear test, analyzing their
technological significance and establishing countermeasures," the official said.
Pyongyang warned it will conduct a second nuclear test as well as test its
inter-continental ballistic missiles after withdrawing from six-nation nuclear
disarmament talks in protest over the U.N. Security Council's rebuke of its April
5 rocket launch. The North also said it has begun reprocessing thousands of spent
nuclear fuel rods, a process that involves extracting plutonium used to make
nuclear bombs.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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