UN report verifies NKs uranium enrichment program

By Kim Young-jin

A report verifying North Korea’s recently-disclosed uranium enrichment program has been submitted to a U.N. Security Council committee overseeing sanctions on Pyongyang, sources said.

A source within the Security Council told Yonhap News Agency, "The report, among other things, says that North Korea’s uranium enrichment program is more advanced than Iran's, and that it has been carrying out the program for a significant period of time.”

The source said the report verifies what the North told U.S. scientist Siegfried Hecker in November when it showed him a uranium enrichment program at its Yongbyon facility some 90 kilometers North of Pyongyang. Hecker said North Korean authorities told him that 2,000 centrifuges were already operating.

Other news reports, citing sources, said the committee will take up the issue this week.

The North claims the program is strictly for civilian purposes, but officials fear the facility could be upgraded to produce nuclear weapons.

The committee is made up of experts from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council ― Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States ― along with Japan and South Korea.