Worry over S Korea ‘nukes’

VIENNA – The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday South Korea’s failure to promptly report research on the enrichment of uranium and plutonium separation to the UN agency was deeply worrying.

South Korea admitted earlier this month it had enriched a small amount of uranium in a revelation that may complicate tortuous attempts to persuade communist North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme. “It is a matter of serious concern that the conversion and enrichment of uranium and the separation of plutonium were not reported to the agency as required by (South Korea’s) safeguards agreement,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in the text of a speech to the IAEA board.ElBaradei was referring to Seoul’s agreement with the IAEA aimed at preventing the diversion of nuclear resources to secret weapons programmes.The safeguards agreement is required under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).Speaking to reporters after the closed-door morning session of the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei said he hoped to quickly wrap up his probe of South Korea’s experiments with two substances that could be used to fuel nuclear weapons.Seoul has denied having a nuclear weapons programme.South Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Cho Chang Beom, told reporters that the research had been conducted by individual scientists without the knowledge of the government.He added that Seoul has been completely open about what he described as unfortunate scientific experimentation.- Nampa-Reuters”It is a matter of serious concern that the conversion and enrichment of uranium and the separation of plutonium were not reported to the agency as required by (South Korea’s) safeguards agreement,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in the text of a speech to the IAEA board.ElBaradei was referring to Seoul’s agreement with the IAEA aimed at preventing the diversion of nuclear resources to secret weapons programmes.The safeguards agreement is required under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).Speaking to reporters after the closed-door morning session of the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei said he hoped to quickly wrap up his probe of South Korea’s experiments with two substances that could be used to fuel nuclear weapons.Seoul has denied having a nuclear weapons programme.South Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Cho Chang Beom, told reporters that the research had been conducted by individual scientists without the knowledge of the government.He added that Seoul has been completely open about what he described as unfortunate scientific experimentation.- Nampa-Reuters