| A new report says North Korea is probably able | | | | first nuclear weapon three months later. |
| to mount a nuclear weapon on missiles it already | | | | Those two tests led South Korea to suspend |
| has. The scope and intentions of North Korea's | | | | high-level contacts with the North and to halt |
| weapons programs are a matter of governmental | | | | emergency food and fertilizer aid to its |
| ambiguity in South Korea, where senior officials | | | | impoverished neighbor. |
| are getting ready for a high-level meeting in | | | | However, shortly after recent multinational talks in |
| Pyongyang next week. VOA's Kurt Achin has | | | | Beijing yielded an agreement aimed at ending the |
| more from Seoul. | | | | North's nuclear weapons programs, Seoul and |
| The Institute for Science and International | | | | Pyongyang scheduled new high-level meetings. |
| Security, a Washington research organization, | | | | The first phase of the nuclear agreement |
| says Pyongyang probably has all the technology it | | | | promises Pyongyang oil if it shuts its main |
| needs to mount "a crude nuclear weapon" on its | | | | plutonium producing facility. |
| missiles. | | | | North Korea will receive more benefits in a |
| North Korea has invested massively in missile | | | | second phase if it fully declares all the nuclear |
| technology over the past two decades, the staple | | | | materials and programs it has. Washington says |
| of which is its Nodong line of missiles. The | | | | Pyongyang must address U.S. evidence of a |
| institute's report, released Wednesday, says | | | | secret uranium-based program, which North Korea |
| Pyongyang probably received designs for | | | | has never publicly admitted. |
| mounting a nuclear warhead on a missile from the | | | | South Korea, which avoids directly confronting the |
| network of Pakistani nuclear engineer A.Q. Khan | | | | North in the interest of stability on the peninsula, |
| during the 1990s. | | | | has not publicly backed the U.S. reports about a |
| Kim Taewoo is a nuclear weapons and ballistic | | | | uranium program. Foreign Minister Song Min-soon |
| missile specialist at Seoul's Korea Institute for | | | | played down questions about the uranium |
| Defense Analyses. He agrees it is theoretically | | | | program Wednesday. He says it is not appropriate |
| possible for the North to launch a nuclear missile. | | | | to comment about what stage such a program |
| Kim says although he thinks Pyongyang would | | | | might have reached. However, he says North |
| never launch a nuclear strike under normal | | | | Korea will be expected to dismantle all of its |
| circumstances, it probably has contingency plans | | | | nuclear programs. |
| for a nuclear attack against South Korea or Japan | | | | The two countries will hold ministerial-level |
| in a crisis - such as if the North's communist | | | | meetings next week in Pyongyang. One of South |
| regime appeared to be collapsing. | | | | Korea's top priorities is expected to be the |
| The North tested at least seven missiles in July, | | | | resumption of aid to ease what officials fear may |
| including a long-range rocket at least theoretically | | | | be a destabilizing food shortage in the North. |
| capable of reaching the United States. It tested its | | | | |