S. Korea Nuclear Inspections Yield No Weapons Program

There's no evidence South Korea was
trying to make nuclear weapons when 14 of its scientists
secretly produced enriched uranium and plutonium without
government approval, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.
The nuclear experiments yielded only small amounts of the
materials, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in an
eight-page report to be presented to the IAEA's governors later
this month and obtained by Bloomberg News. Enriched uranium and
plutonium can be used to fuel nuclear reactors or for weapons.
``The experiments were laboratory-scale,'' according to
the report. South Korea ``provided active cooperation to the
agency in providing timely information and access to personnel
and locations,'' the IAEA said. The head of the government's
nuclear research agency in Daejon was the top South Korean
official aware of the experiments, the IAEA said.
The report followed South Korea's voluntary statement to
the Vienna-based IAEA in August that the scientists enriched
uranium in 2000 without government knowledge. North Korea's
government said the South Korean revelations and a hostile U.S.
policy toward the communist nation are preventing the six-
nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program from resuming.

Laser Technologies

South Korea enriched uranium to concentrations just shy of
what would be needed to build a nuclear weapon, the IAEA said
in the report. The agency is still investigating where the
South Korean government bought the laser technologies its
scientists used for enrichment.
The enrichment took ``place in the context of a broader
experimental effort'' to apply laser technology to non-nuclear
materials, the IAEA said. The enriched uranium came from 154
kilograms (340 pounds) of uranium metal that scientists
converted from the raw version of the material during the
1980s, the report said.
Talks between the U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China,
Japan and Russia have been stalled since North Korea failed to
participate in a scheduled fourth round in September.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said last month the
forum should discuss South Korea's nuclear experiments.
``We can't say for certain when the next six-nation talks
will be held,'' South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon said
in September. ``With recent comments from North Korea, we can't
be sure.''