YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) N.K. responsible for coming clean with UEP, says Chun

   SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy said Wednesday he believes North Korea is responsible for coming clean on a suspected uranium enrichment program (UEP), which sparked off the current ongoing nuclear crisis.

   "I believe the responsibility to show evidence on UEP is on North Korea," Chun Young-woo said in a joint news conference with local and foreign news media.

   "What we demand from the North is that it should give a full account - whether the account is about past equipment, materials, technology and purchasing activities related with UEP or about all suspicions that have been raised, or whether it is an activity that the North stopped doing or continues to do," the envoy said.

   The remarks came as the six-nation talks on the nuclear dispute, which made progress in shutting down and disabling the North's nuclear reactor, are now deadlocked over a dispute over the submission of a list of the North's nuclear programs.

   North Korea says it submitted a full inventory of its nuclear programs in November but the United States insists it must account fully for a suspected highly enriched uranium weapons program aside from its plutonium activities.

   Chun refused to comment when asked to what level the North's uranium enrichment was made. "Since the information is at an intelligence level, it would be better not to comment in public," he said.

   As for the North's disablement of its key nuclear facilities, the envoy said the goal of preventing the North's additional production of nuclear materials has been mostly achieved "although the current speed of disabling is not satisfactory enough."
He predicted it would take more than one year for North Korea to resume the operation of the nuclear facilities after it completes disabling them.

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