US: N. Korea's nuke claim provocative, not surprise

Special envoy says Pyongyang's revelation of highly sophisticated, modern enrichment operation is "disappointing announcement."

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stephen Bosworth in South Korea 311 (photo credit: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Stephen Bosworth in South Korea 311
(photo credit: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
SEOUL, South Korea — The US special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Pyongyang's claim of a new uranium enrichment facility is provocative and disappointing but not a crisis or a surprise. Washington, he vowed, will keep working closely with its Asian partners in response.
Stephen Bosworth's comments, following a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, came as the United States and the North's neighbors scrambled to deal with Pyongyang's revelation to a visiting American nuclear scientist of a highly sophisticated, modern enrichment operation that had what the North says are 2,000 recently completed centrifuges.
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"This is obviously a disappointing announcement. It is also another in a series of provocative moves" by North Korea, Bosworth said. "That being said, this is not a crisis. We are not surprised by this. We have been watching and analyzing the (North's) aspirations to produce enriched uranium for some time." Kim also played down the facility, telling reporters: "It's nothing new." Top US military officials, however, warned that it could speed up the North's ability to make and deliver viable nuclear weapons.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it could enable North Korea to build "a number" of nuclear devices beyond the handful it is presumed to have already assembled. Gates was speaking in Bolivia, where he is attending a regional defense conference.
The American scientist, Siegfried Hecker, posted a report over the weekend that said he was taken during a recent trip to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small, industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility.
Hecker, a former director of the US Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory who is regularly given rare glimpses of the North's secretive nuclear program, said the North Korean program had been built in secret and with remarkable speed.
It wasn't immediately clear why the North chose to reveal the previously hidden facility. It could be a ploy to win concessions in nuclear talks or an attempt to bolster leader Kim Jong Il's apparent heir. The North could also be serious about producing nuclear electricity.
Regardless, it provides a new set of worries for the Obama administration, which has shunned direct negotiations with North Korea following its nuclear and missile tests last year and in the wake of an international finding that a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors.
The United States has been working with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea since 2003 to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs through a framework known as the six-party talks. Bosworth was to travel later this week to Japan and China for talks.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, called North Korea "a very dangerous country." "I've been worried about North Korea and its potential nuclear capability for a long time," Mullen said on ABC's "This Week." ''This certainly gives that potential real life, very visible life that we all ought to be very, very focused on."