N. Korea seems to have uranium-based nuclear program: Cheney

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to have a uranium-based
nuclear program aside from its plutonium-producing reactor, which is being
disabled under an aid-for-denuclearization deal, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney
said Friday.

"North Korea continues to be a problem, partly because they haven't kept their
commitment to give us a full and complete declaration, partly because it looks
like they have a continuing, ongoing program to produce highly enriched uranium,
in addition to what they were doing in Yongbyon at their plutonium reactor,"
Cheney said in an interview with the Associated Press, according to a transcript
released by the vice president's office.
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley touched on the same issue a couple of
days ago.
While urging North Korea to agree to a complete verification regime for its
nuclear facilities, Hadley told a seminar here Wednesday, "Without this
verification agreement, there can be no progress, and this is especially true
because some in the intelligence community have increasing concerns that North
Korea has an ongoing covert uranium enrichment program."
The outgoing vice president also said that North Korea "helped the Syrians build
a nuclear reactor, which is a major problem. I'm confident of that statement."
Cheney was speaking about the Syrian facility bombed by Israeli aircraft in
September.
U.S. officials said the destroyed facility was a nuclear reactor being built with
help from North Korea, although the International Atomic Energy Agency fell short
of supporting that claim after an on-site inspection later last year.
Critics have said that the nuclear deal reached by the two Koreas, the U.S.,
China, Japan and Russia has a major loophole in that it does not address the
suspected uranium program and nuclear proliferation.
President Bush has also been criticized for focusing on the North's nuclear
proliferation rather than on the dismantlement of its nuclear arsenal.
U.S. chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill pushed ahead with what hardliners say
is an incomplete nuclear deal in support of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
amid allegations that Cheney and other hardliners were being sidelined by Bush on
the North Korean nuclear issue.
Bush apparently aimed to make the North Korean nuclear pact his signature foreign
policy achievement after failures in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. His eight years
in office end Jan. 20.
Bush administration officials have in recent months defended the deal, saying
that it stopped the North from producing more plutonium for nuclear warheads.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that North Korea has built
several nuclear bombs, and U.S. intelligence and defense reports have categorized
the North as a nuclear weapons state.
Incoming U.S. President Barack Obama has said the North has eight nuclear
weapons, without elaborating. He has said he will support the six-party nuclear
talks while seeking more direct bilateral engagement.
In the latest round of the six-party talks last month, North Korea backed away
from a verification regime, saying it will agree to that later, in the third
phase of the nuclear deal.
North Korea is now in the second phase, during which it is supposed to disable
its nuclear facilities in return for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or the
equivalent in energy aid.
The third and last phase calls for the North to dismantle all its nuclear
facilities and programs in exchange for massive economic aid and diplomatic
recognition by the U.S. and Japan.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)