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South Korea Enriched Uranium to a Higher Level Than Iran During 2000 Experiments, Diplomats Say
Diplomats have said that South Korea was more successful than Iran has been in producing highly enriched uranium, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 9). In interviews with the Post last week, diplomats said that South Korean scientists had enriched uranium during experiments in 2000 to levels four times higher than Iranian scientists have been able to achieve. They also said, though, that the South Korean experiments involved smaller amounts of uranium than Iranian efforts and that there is no indication that South Korea invested the same level of resources as has Iran, the Post reported. In addition, diplomats said that South Korea blocked International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of the site where the uranium experiments occurred for months and provided the agency with false information. “In 2001, the IAEA asked to conduct a regular inspection and was denied. That happened at least twice before the South Koreans, under some protest, allowed the inspectors in two years later,” one diplomat said. According to diplomats, South Korea could not produce documentation on the 2000 experiments or several of the scientists who participated in them during an IAEA inspection last week. For its part, Seoul has said that it is cooperating fully with the IAEA, the Post reported (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Sept. 12). Meanwhile, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said today that the revelations of the 2000 uranium enrichment experiments and earlier plutonium separation activities by South Korea were an issue of “serious concern” to the agency. In an opening address to the IAEA Board of Governors meeting, ElBaradei said that he plans to ask South Korea “to continue to provide active cooperation and maximum transparency” to aid the agency’s efforts in investigating the previously undisclosed nuclear activities (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Sept. 13).
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