North Korea Has Uranium Enrichment Program

Dear editor,

I'm writing in response to an article entitled ``Nuclear Summit and Missed Opportunity in Pyongyang'' published in The Korea Times on April 15.

Your correspondent quoted the distinguished, retired British diplomat, James Hoare as saying that I said one thing about former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, James Kelly's meeting with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister, Kang Suk-ju in October 2002, immediately after that meeting, but later said I was no longer sure what Kang had said.

That is inaccurate. As I have said publicly on many occasions, although Vice Foreign Minister Kang did not specifically state, ``Yes, we have a highly enriched uranium program,'' the statements he did make, and the context in which he made them, clearly seemed intended to leave the Kelly delegation with the understanding that North Korea did indeed have a uranium enrichment program. That was my belief then and it remains so today.

David Straub Associate Director Korean Studies Program The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Stanford University