Pyongyang may have secret nuclear plant
Pyongyang has clandestinely built a second plant capable of processing plutonium for nuclear weapons, the New York Times said Sunday.
The Times claims Krypton 85 gases have been detected, indicating the production of plutonium, which could not have come from the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon.
And the Financial Times reported that it has word that the secret nuclear plant may be hidden underground so as to avoid detection by spy satellites.
North Korea admitted 10 days ago to having reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, giving it sufficient material to build several nuclear bombs.
Tension of the peninsula is at breaking point. Some analysts in Washington fear war may follow by year-end without some kind of climb down.
The North wants unilateral talks with the US but America says five-way discussions between the two Koreas, China, Japan and itself is the way forward.
However, North Korea may find middle ground with three-way talks with ally China and the US.
The reclusive communist state has stepped up the rhetoric since it admitted last October to having restarted its uranium-based nuclear weapons programme.
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s five-day visit to Japan, South Korea, and China may prove prescient.
He met South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun yesterday aware of the reports. The situation must be handled with “special sensitivity,” he said.
He added: “We can’t have a situation in which North Korea not merely continues to develop a nuclear weapons program, but proliferates and exports that technology around the world.”
Mr Blair travelled to Beijing on Sunday where he is to further discuss the North Korean “crisis” with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other government officials.
