US suspects more nuclear sites in North Korea

VIENNA - The US suspects that North Korea has additional uranium enrichment sites besides the one that the communist country recently revealed, a senior US diplomat said here Thursday.

North Korea showed its enrichment facility at the Yongbyon complex to two visiting US scholars last month, and has announced it would press ahead with this technology.

Glyn Davies, Washington’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said North Korea has likely been pursuing enrichment since long before April 2009, contrary to Pyongyang’s claims.

Davies based his assessment on the size of the facility, as well as evidence about attempts to buy equipment abroad.

If the timeline was indeed longer than officially admitted, “there is a clear likelihood that North Korea has built other enrichment-related facilities in its territory”, Davies added at a meeting of the IAEA’s governing board.

North Korea had previously used plutonium for its two tests of military nuclear explosives.

Although the country says it enriches uranium for a peaceful reactor, the technology could be used to make uranium weapons.

IAEA Director Yukiya Amano said he learned of the Yongbyon facility “with great concern” and said his agency’s inspectors should be allowed back into the country.