North Korea ‘still a nuclear risk’
US intelligence chief says he believes North Korea still pursuing weapons programme.
“Let me be clear – ‘complete and correct’ means complete and correct” Christopher Hill, US envoy to North Korea nuclear talks |
Hill, who represents the US at six-party talks, said on Wednesday the talks were at a “critical, challenging” point.
produced and believed to have been used to make a nuclear bomb that
Pyongyang exploded in October 2006.
“While Pyongyang denies a programme of uranium enrichment and they deny their proliferation activities, we believe North Korea continues to engage in both” Mike McConnell, US director of national intelligence |
Meanwhile, a US intelligence report on Tuesday said that North Korea is still pursuing a uranium enrichment capacity.
“We remain concerned North Korea could proliferate nuclear weapons abroad,” the report said.
McConnell noted in the report that Pyongyang had missed an end of 2007 deadline for making a full declaration of its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and political concessions.
He said the US remains “uncertain about Kim Jong-Il’s commitment to full denuclearisation, as he promised in the six-party agreement”, referring to the North’s leader and the six-nation nuclear talks.
“While Pyongyang denies a programme of uranium enrichment and they deny their proliferation activities, we believe North Korea continues to engage in both,” McConnell said.