Shutdown of Nuclear Complex Deepens North Korean Mystery

Friday, September 12, 2003

By Douglas Jehl

New York Times Writer

Officials from North Korea and the United States, along with representatives from China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, met in Beijing last month to discuss North Korea's weapons program. They are to meet again this fall. One theory about the halt in activity is that North Korea wanted to signal its willingness to stop work on its weapons program in return for sufficient inducements.

WASHINGTON -- NYT
American intelligence agencies are puzzling over evidence that North Korea has halted operations at its nuclear complex in Yongbyon, according to senior United States officials.

The Yongbyon site is the only one in North Korea known to produce plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons. The American officials said there was a debate among intelligence officials about whether the shutdown, which some described as fairly recent, reflects a technical problem, a goodwill gesture by the North, or a shift to another site.

The uncertainty underscores the lack of information about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Much of the intelligence is based on monitoring krypton gas emissions, a byproduct of nuclear reprocessing.

North Korean restarted the reactor at Yongbyon in February. The reprocessing work, to turn spent nuclear fuel rods into plutonium, is believed to have begun in the late spring or summer, United States officials said. The apparent shutdown at Yongbyon was first reported on Thursday in The Los Angeles Times.
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Dan