Times: North Korea Has Two Nuke Plants

Times: North Korea Has Two Nuke Plants

NewsMax Wires
Monday, July 21, 2003

NEW YORK -- Evidence from monitors on the border suggest North Korea has more than one plant capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.

The New York Times reported in its Sunday editions that American and Asian officials with access to the latest intelligence say the North may have built a second processing plant, perhaps hidden in mountainous territory.

Tell-tale wisps of krypton 85, a gas emitted as spent fuel rods are converted into plutonium, have apparently been sourced away from North Korea's main nuclear plant at Yongbyon, analysis has shown, the newspaper said.

One administration official was quoted as saying the evidence was worrisome but not conclusive.

In fact, in October North Korean officials said they had secretly built a plant intended to produce uranium fuel for a bomb. Five years ago the United States demanded an inspection of an underground site but it turned out to be empty.