Seoul suspects about 100 sites in N. Korea linked to nuclear program

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea knows of about 100 North Korean sites
linked to the communist state's nuclear program and has the capacity to strike
them if necessary, its defense chief said Monday.

"There are about 100 sites related to the nuclear" program in North Korea, South
Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told lawmakers during a parliamentary
audit.
"We have a complete list of them," he said, expressing confidence his forces
could strike any of them "if it is absolutely clear a North Korean offensive is
imminent."
The comment came after Kim said at a parliamentary hearing last month that he
knew of sites where the North could be hiding its stockpile of nuclear arms if
the communist state had one.
"We have sufficient information as to the locations where items related to the
nuclear program are stored and the delivery means are placed," the former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.
North Korea has conducted two known atomic tests in the past three years -- one
in October 2006 and the other in May this year.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)