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South Korea Admits to 1982 Plutonium Extraction, Says Revelation Will Not Damage North Korea Dialogue
South Korean officials said today the country had conducted a nuclear experiment in which scientists extracted a tiny amount of plutonium, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 9). The experiment occurred in April and May 1982 in Seoul at a Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute research reactor, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Science and Technology. “This experiment was conducted by a small group of scientists to analyze the chemical characteristics of plutonium,” the statement says. “We have no written data left on the result of the experiment and the amount of plutonium extracted, but we estimate that a very minute amount in the range of milligrams was extracted.” “We also confirmed that we informed the IAEA in September 1983 that the nuclear material used during the experiment was lost and should be exempt from safeguard measures,” the statement says. A South Korean delegation departed today for IAEA headquarters in Vienna to further explain the 1982 experiment and another uranium-based experiment disclosed last week. “Our government and the IAEA are trying to narrow some differences that the two sides have over contents of our report to the IAEA and over whether the contents were verified,” the ministry’s statement says. South Korea said it would “thoroughly” honor all its obligations as a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, according to AP (Sang-Hun Choe, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 9). South Korean officials today also played down a warning from Han Sung Ryol, North Korea’s envoy to the United Nations, regarding the possibility of a nuclear arms race on the Korean Peninsula, AP reported. “Despite Han’s remarks yesterday, we do not know yet if his comments represent North Korea’s official stance on the issue,” said Lee Bong-jo, vice minister of South Korea’s Unification Ministry. “As far as we know, Han never said North Korea would not attend the six-party talks [on the communist nation’s nuclear program], so at this moment we don’t believe that Han’s remarks necessarily mean that North Korea will withdraw from the talks,” Lee said. South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck flew to Tokyo today for talks with Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, according to AP. “If North Korea has arguments to make, it can come to the fourth round of six-nation talks to make them,” Lee told the Yonhap News Agency prior to his departure (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 9). Meanwhile, Chinese officials said they believed the South Korea matter could be “entirely clarified” and urged patience in this “difficult moment” in the wake of Han’s comment, Agence France-Presse reported. “In the 80s, South Korea had some activities we all now think it shouldn’t have had,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said. “We have seen relevant reports and we attach importance to them and we hope that through the IAEA team that has been sent to the ROK (South Korea), the matter can be entirely clarified” (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 9). Elsewhere, a Japanese official today said the International Atomic Energy Agency should conduct thorough inspections regarding South Korea’s plutonium experiment, AFP reported. “It was inappropriate,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said of the experiment. “We hope the IAEA will conduct strict inspections. “We must not allow this to lead to development of nuclear weapons,” he added (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 9).
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