U.S.: North Korea admits nuke program

From Andrea Koppel and John King
CNN Washington Bureau

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VIDEO North Korea has revealed to the U.S. that it has a secret and active nuclear weapons program after it promised to never again pursue such a course. CNN's Andrea Koppel reports (October 17) PLAY VIDEO RELATED • Story: Pyongyang urged to stick to anti-nuke pacts  • Story: Korean War resentment still lingers  • Interactive: Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What  • Special Report: The two Koreas  1994 agreement North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program and allow inspections to verify that it did not have the material such weapons would require. The country has yet to allow the inspections. Source: The Associated Press QUICKVOTE Should the U.S. continue to negotiate with North Korea after its admission of its nuclear weapons program? Yes No VIEW RESULTS

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea has revealed to the United States that it has a secret and active nuclear weapons program begun years after it promised to never again to pursue such a course, the White House said late Wednesday.

One senior administration official said Pyongyang made the acknowledgment only after it was confronted with evidence that it has a uranium-based program and enough plutonium for at least two nuclear weapons.

The North's admission prompted urgent consultations among the United States, Japan and South Korea -- the three nations that North Korea had promised under the so-called "agreed framework."

The diplomatic term describes the 1994 agreement under which North Korea said it would no longer seek to develop nuclear weapons.

In exchange, the United States and others agreed to help build two light water nuclear reactors to replace the plutonium-producing reactors Pyongyang was using, The Associated Press reported.

The reactors were being financed mostly by South Korea and Japan. Construction of the reactors began just two months ago.

The agreement also called for inspections to verify that the terms were being adhered to, but so far Pyongyang has blocked all attempts to make such inspections.

North Korea confirmed U.S. suspicions earlier this month during a high-level U.S. visit to Pyongyang, led by James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs.

The senior official said the revelation came in a meeting between Kelly and a top North Korean official, Kang Suk Ju, described as the equivalent of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's right-hand man. These were the first such high level discussions between the two nations in two years.

The official said Kelly told Kang that the United States knew the country had a secret nuclear weapons program using "different technology" from that used prior to 1994, and that North Korea had saved enough plutonium for at least two nuclear weapons.

The North Korean official then shocked Kelly when he looked at him and said "something to the effect of, 'Your president called us a member of the axis of evil. ... Your troops are deployed on the Korean peninsula. ... Of course, we have a nuclear program,'" according to the senior administration source, who was briefed on the meeting.

"They are in material breach of the agreed framework," said White House spokesman Sean McCormack.

"We seek a peaceful resolution of this situation," McCormack said, according to the AP. "Everyone in the region has a stake in this issue and no peaceful nation wants to see a nuclear-armed North Korea."

This statue of the late longtime North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung, graces a plaza in Pyongyang.

"The United States and our allies call on North Korea to comply with its commitments under the nonproliferation treaty and to eliminate its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable manner," he said.

Following North Korea's admission, McCormack said a series of internal administration meetings about how to respond were held, culminating in a National Security Council meeting on the issue Tuesday.

President Bush is scheduled to meet jointly with the prime ministers of Japan and South Korea later this month at the annual Asian Pacific economic summit.

The development means the United States must end efforts to improve relations with North Korea, said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

"The United States was prepared to offer economic and political steps to improve the lives of the North Korean people, provided the North were dramatically to alter its behavior across a range of issues, including its weapons of mass destruction programs, development and export of ballistic missiles, threats to its neighbors, support for terrorism, and the deplorable treatment of the North Korean people," Boucher said in a statement.

"In light of our concerns about the North's nuclear weapons program, however, we are unable to pursue this approach." (Full statement)

Another senior administration official said the United States has told North Korea it had "violated" the agreed framework and that the agreement was now "nullified."

Boucher said Pyongyang also has violated the Nonproliferation Treaty, its International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement, and the Joint North-South Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea told U.S. officials it was no longer bound by the anti-nuclear agreement, U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the AP.

A CIA report in January said that during the second half of last year, North Korea "continued its attempts [to] procure technology worldwide that could have applications in its nuclear program," the AP reported.

"We assess that North Korea has produced enough plutonium for at least one, and possibly two, nuclear weapons," the report said.

Another senior U.S. official told CNN that Washington received intelligence "back over the summer months" indicating that North Korea had a nuclear weapons program involving the use of highly enriched uranium.

The intelligence, the official said, indicated the program was launched in the late 1990s -- several years after North Korea signed the agreement with the United States, Japan and South Korea.

The official said that when Kelly confronted the top North Korean official with information about the nuclear weapons program on October 4, the North Koreans were "belligerent" but did not dispute the U.S. claim and "showed not a hint of remorse."

The administration had already shared some of its intelligence with key congressional committees.

In his State of the Union address earlier this year, Bush referred to North Korea as a member of the "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran -- a statement rejected by Pyongyang.

Previously, U.S. fears over North Korea centered on its sale of ballistic missile technology to other countries, including Iran and Syria.

In August 1998, North Korea launched a rocket that flew over Japan. The launch prompted Japan to start work on an anti-missile shield, and the United States agreed to cooperate with the project.

At first, U.S. intelligence agencies told lawmakers in private briefings the North Koreans fired a three-stage ballistic missile. Analysts later concluded the rocket was a failed satellite launch, as North Korea reported at the time.

After months of tension with South Korea, the North resumed high-level talks in August that restarted stalled reconciliation efforts on the Korean peninsula -- divided by the most heavily armed border in the world, the AP reported.

The Koreas were divided following World War II and continued that way at the end of the inconclusive Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The United States still stations about 37,000 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, according to the AP.

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