Cheney Claims NK Has Uranium-Based Nuke Program

North Korea’s stockpile of nuclear arsenal may include a uranium-based one, in addition to the known plutonium-producing reactor that has been undergoing disablement steps, the second highest-ranking U.S. official said Friday.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said, “It looks like (North Koreans) have a continuing, ongoing program to produce highly enriched uranium, in addition to what they were doing in Yongbyon at their plutonium reactor," Yonhap News reported Saturday citing a transcript released by the vice president's office.

Cheney’s statement echoes the view of the National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley earlier this week. In a seminar Wednesday, Hadley said, “Some in the intelligence community have increasing concerns that North Korea has an ongoing covert uranium enrichment program."

The outgoing vice president also said that North Korea helped the Syrians build a nuclear reactor. “I'm confident of that statement,” he said, referring to the Syrian facility bombed by Israeli aircraft in September.

Some observers, however, find the “revelation” by Cheney and Hadley as “nothing new.” “These claims have been made for many years, going way back to the early 1990s. These comments jibe with the hardline faction in the Bush administration which has been sidelined by Bush,” an observer in Seoul told The Korea Times, asking anonymity.

President Bush, who is about to step down on Jan.20, drastically turned around from his initial hardline posture on North Korea in an apparent aim to make the North Korean nuclear pact his signature foreign policy achievement after failures in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

Incoming U.S. President Barack Obama has said the North has eight nuclear weapons, without elaborating. He has said he will support the six-party nuclear talks while seeking more direct bilateral engagement with the Stalinist country.