[NYTr] NKorea denies nuclear links with Syria

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP - Sep 18, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070918075222.bc6v0rxu.html

NKorea denies nuclear links with Syria

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea on Tuesday denied reports that it was helping
Syria to develop nuclear weapons and insisted it was keeping an earlier
pledge not to allow the transfer of nuclear materials.

The announcement from the communist state's foreign ministry comes amid
intense speculation over a recent Israeli air raid on Syria, which the
Jewish state said had helped recover its "deterrent capability" against
any attack.

Some US media reports said that Israeli warplanes may have targeted a
joint nuclear project, but a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman
said such talk was nothing but a "clumsy plot" against Pyongyang.

"Recently some US media including the New York Times have been
spreading allegations that we are secretly helping Syria with its
nuclear programme. Such reports are groundless and misleading," the
spokesman said.

"We, as a responsible nuclear power, already declared in October 2006
that we will never allow the transfer of nuclear materials, and we have
been sticking to this declaration," the spokesman said in a statement
published by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Allegations about secret nuclear cooperation are nothing but a clumsy
plot set up again by vicious forces who do not want progress in North
Korea-US relations and six-party talks," he said.

The angry denial came as the six-nation talks aimed at ending the
North's nuclear programmes hit a snag, with host China informing South
Korea that the negotiations expected to begin on Wednesday had been
postponed.

China gave neither a reason for the delay nor a new start date, but a
top South Korean official involved in the talks said Tuesday that
Pyongyang had requested a delay, saying it was "uncomfortable" with the
scheduled start.

"North Korea was feeling uncomfortable with the September 19th opening
of the six-party talks," the official told AFP on condition of
anonymity. "It gave no reason."

He said he expected to resume sometime after next Tuesday, a holiday in
Korea, adding he did not think the delay would have any adverse effect.
The US State Department said the negotiations would be delayed by about
a week.

In a landmark six-nation deal brokered in February, North Korea agreed
to dismantle all of its nuclear facilities and programmes in exchange
for diplomatic concessions and energy and other aid.

At the next round, representatives of the two Koreas, China, Japan,
Russia and the United States were expected to work on setting a firm
deadline for the disabling of the North's nuclear facilities, as called
for under the deal.

But the allegations over possible nuclear collaboration between
Pyongyang and Damascus seemed likely to throw a wrench in the
negotiations.

The Washington Post quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying the
Israeli secret service had relayed the information about the claimed
nuclear links to the US government, which it described as "dramatic."

Syria has angrily denied as US "lies" any suggestions that it was
receiving nuclear material from North Korea.

US State Department officials have refused to comment directly on the
intelligence reports, except to say that Washington had always been
concerned over North Korea's proliferation activities.

The United States has long accused North Korea, which carried out a
nuclear weapons test in October 2006, of weapons proliferation. US
officials have charged Syria with bankrolling terrorism groups in the
Middle East.

Washington has also said it believes North Korea is running a secret
uranium enrichment programme in addition to those it has declared.
Pyongyang has refuted that allegation.

Israel's air strike in Syria -- which it said had allowed it to recover
its "deterrent capability" -- has triggered warnings of retaliation and
intense media speculation over the aim of the operation.

Analysts in Seoul said the postponement of the six-party talks and the
timing of the news reports on the possible North Korea-Syria connection
did not bode well for international efforts to disarm the communist
state.

"These allegations about Pyongyang's links with Syria certainly add to
uncertainties over the North Korean nuclear talks," said Baek
Seung-Joo, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis.

"Pyongyang will find these allegations very irritating. Both Pyongyang
and its opponents may find an excuse in these allegations to delay the
nuclear talks," he told AFP.