Tubes trouble for Nork nuke program

Fox News:

North Korea recently turned over to the United States equipment found to be contaminated with traces of highly enriched uranium — HEU — apparently contradicting the country's stance that it never had such a program, FOX News has confirmed.

The equipment was described as a set of "smelted aluminum tubes" suitable for an HEU centrifuge program, a step necessary to make a nuclear weapon.

"They got some 'splainin' to do," one U.S. arms control official said when first told of the discovery about a month ago, he recalled to FOX.

However, North Korea claims the tubes were intended for use in the development of a conventional "artillery" weapon, sources told FOX News.

As part of a six-nation disarmament deal, North Korea is disabling its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and related nuclear facilities, and is obligated to provide a "complete and correct" declaration of all their nuclear programs, weapons, and materiel by Dec. 31.

...

Arms control officials told FOX News Friday it is possible the contaminated equipment bore traces of HEU because it was exposed to other contaminated equipment from a source outside North Korea.

One theory is that the traces came from equipment that originated in Pakistan, where that country's chief nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, is now known to have secretly and illegally sold nuclear technology to countries like Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Hill told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 28, "We know from the Pakistanis that they [the North Koreans] bought these centrifuges. There's no other purpose for a centrifuge of that kind than to produce highly enriched uranium."

...

If it is really from Pakistan, they should be able to verify that. Apparently nuclear material has something similar to DNA which makes it traceable. It is in North Korea's interest to explain its origin since their credibility has been pretty suspect anyway and they need to be building trust in the process.