North Korea May Start Building Nuclear Weapons, says Report
VOA News
15 Jul 2003, 12:41 UTC
A published report says North Korea has told the United States it plans to start producing nuclear weapons.
The New York Times Tuesday quoted unnamed Bush administration officials as saying the North revealed its plans last week during a meeting in New York with Jack Pritchard, a State Department official who handles North Korean affairs. Those unnamed officials say Pyongyang reported having processed enough plutonium to produce six nuclear bombs, and that it plans to move ahead quickly to start turning the material into weapons.
U.S. intelligence experts believe North Korea already has one or two nuclear weapons, but on Monday, South Korea's foreign minister said there is no direct evidence to back such reports.
Meanwhile, China is refusing to confirm a report saying it is secretly trying to re-start talks between North Korea and the United States over the nuclear crisis. The report from Reuters News Agency says Beijing is proposing a multilateral format for the talks bringing together the United States, North Korea and several other countries.
Reuters says the format would allow for bilateral talks, on the sidelines, between Washington and Pyongyang.
The United States says it wants multilateral talks to resolve the crisis. North Korea insists on direct talks with Washington.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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