Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
North Korea claims success in enriching uranium for bombs
Source: Agencies |
September 5, 2009, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NORTH Korea announced yesterday that its process of enriching uranium is nearly complete, giving it a new way to make nuclear bombs as the United States and regional powers discuss how to bring the country back to disarmament talks.
The move raises concerns that North Korea may soon produce uranium-based bombs in addition to those made from plutonium.
The United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have been trying for years to persuade North Korea to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear program.
Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous, underground factories, and could provide North Korea with an easier way to build nuclear bombs, according to experts in the US and at South Korea's Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control.
Uranium-based bombs may also work without requiring test explosions like the two carried out by North Korea this May and in 2006 for plutonium-based weapons.
Washington's special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said any nuclear development in North Korea was a matter of concern.
"We confirm the necessity to maintain a coordinated position and the need for a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," he said yesterday in Beijing during a trip to discuss North Korea with counterparts in China, South Korea and Japan.
The US had long suspected that the North also had a secret uranium enrichment program, which would give it a second source of nuclear material. North Korea for years denied the claim but said in June that it was prepared to start enriching uranium.
"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," North Korea said in a letter to the UN Security Council yesterday.
Verifying North Korea's claim on uranium enrichment won't be easy, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.
However, the announcement suggests North Korea has made progress in its uranium program in a small pilot factory, said Lee Choon-geun of South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Still, he said it could take at least five years to build a uranium-based bomb.
The move raises concerns that North Korea may soon produce uranium-based bombs in addition to those made from plutonium.
The United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have been trying for years to persuade North Korea to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear program.
Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous, underground factories, and could provide North Korea with an easier way to build nuclear bombs, according to experts in the US and at South Korea's Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control.
Uranium-based bombs may also work without requiring test explosions like the two carried out by North Korea this May and in 2006 for plutonium-based weapons.
Washington's special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said any nuclear development in North Korea was a matter of concern.
"We confirm the necessity to maintain a coordinated position and the need for a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," he said yesterday in Beijing during a trip to discuss North Korea with counterparts in China, South Korea and Japan.
The US had long suspected that the North also had a secret uranium enrichment program, which would give it a second source of nuclear material. North Korea for years denied the claim but said in June that it was prepared to start enriching uranium.
"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," North Korea said in a letter to the UN Security Council yesterday.
Verifying North Korea's claim on uranium enrichment won't be easy, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.
However, the announcement suggests North Korea has made progress in its uranium program in a small pilot factory, said Lee Choon-geun of South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Still, he said it could take at least five years to build a uranium-based bomb.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
