YONHAP NEWS

U.S. lacks concrete evidence on N. Korean uranium program: Clinton

   By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- The United States does not have concrete evidence to prove that North Korea has a clandestine uranium-based nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

   "I don't have any doubt that they would try whatever they possibly could. Have they? I don't know that, and nobody else does, either," Clinton said in an interview with FOX News from Seoul, where she was visiting on the third leg of her four-nation Asian tour that also brought her to Tokyo, Jakarta and Beijing.

   Clinton said that nobody can point to "any specific location" or "any specific outcome of whatever might have gone on, if anything did."

   "Clearly, there was some reason to believe that something having to do with highly enriched uranium, whether it was happening in North Korea, whether it had been imported into North Korea, was part of the information derived once we got inspectors into North Korea," she said.

   Clinton was referring to the controversy over North Korea's alleged highly enriched uranium-based nuclear program, which derailed the Agreed Framework signed between Pyongyang and Washington in 1994 under the administration of her husband, Bill Clinton.

   The agreement calls for the freezing of North Korea's plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, north of its capital Pyongyang, in return for two light-water reactors -- which are not capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium -- along with energy aid and political benefits.

   Clinton said in Tokyo on Tuesday she regretted that the former Bush administration had scrapped the Agreed Framework, saying that allowed the North to produce more plutonium and conduct its first nuclear test in 2006.

   "If we could turn the clock back, we would not have let that occur," she said.

   Alarmed by the North's nuclear test, the Bush administration actively engaged the North, which it originally designated as part of an "Axis of Evil" along with Iran and Iraq. The U.S. also agreed on a six-party deal in 2005, under which the North would be granted energy and economic aid and normalization of ties with Washington and Tokyo in exchange for nuclear disarmament.

   The six-party deal, however, failed to deal with the alleged uranium program.

   The multilateral talks have sputtered since, before hitting the latest snag in December when North Korea refused to agree to a verification regime for its nuclear facilities.

   On her Asian tour, which began Sunday, Clinton has proposed normalizing ties with Pyongyang, establishing a peace treaty to replace a fragile armistice on the Korean Peninsula and providing massive economic aid -- all stipulated by the six-party process -- if the North denuclearizes.

   While in Seoul earlier in the day, Clinton warned North Korea not to escalate tensions "in the war of words," saying that the North is "not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with the Republic of Korea," using South Korea's official name.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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