(Yonhap Interview) Uranium bombs expected to account for 60 percent of N.K.'s nuclear arsenal: think tank chief

By Chang Jae-soon

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is estimated to have up to nine nuclear weapons built with highly enriched uranium, and uranium bombs could account for up to 60 percent of the North's nuclear arsenal feared to grow to up to 100 weapons in five years, an American expert said.

David Albright, a top nuclear expert who heads the Institute for Science and International Security think tank, spoke about the forecast in an interview with Yonhap News Agency, saying highly enriched uranium is easier to make than weapons-grade plutonium.

Last month, Albright and Joel Wit, a security expert who runs the website 38 North, rang the alarm about the North's growing nuclear capabilities with a surprising assessment that Pyongyang could expand its nuclear stockpile from 10-16 nuclear weapons to up to 100 weapons by 2020.

In that case, "40 percent of the arsenal would contain plutonium and 60 percent would contain weapons-grade uranium," Albright said in the interview at his office in Washington. "The weapons-grade uranium cannot be forgotten by any means."

   Some experts have questioned the 100 weapons, including Olli Heinonen, a former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official. Albright said in response to such skepticism: "North Korea is not a country just starting to make nuclear weapons. North Korea has been making nuclear weapons for up to two decades."

   The worst case scenario is based on an assumption that the North has two centrifuges, not only the one at the country's main nuclear complex, but also a secret facility whose existence has been widely suspected but has not been confirmed, he said.

"I went from deeply skeptical to believing that it's possible ... that they have another major centrifuge plant. We have to do more work ... to see if that's true. But I take the U.S. assessment intelligence that there is this earlier centrifuge plant much more seriously now than I did maybe five, six years ago," he said.

Albright said he has "come across three place names" as to the location of the secret facility but declined to elaborate, saying the information came from North Korean defectors and needs to be checked.

"We filter some of this through governments because we can't evaluate a defector. We just don't have the tools so we depend on the information from governments, not the U.S. government and not the South Korean government. But we're trying to make sense, but we don't know, and I don't think anyone does," he said.

He said he doesn't believe the North, which has so far conducted three nuclear tests, needs any more tests. The regime may have "some more questions about weapons-grade uranium, and they may be interested in miniaturizing devices with weapons-grade uranium," he said.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is so focused on the Iranian nuclear issue that it does not have energy to deal with the North Korean problem, Albright said.

"The tragedy is that Iran is taking so long and success is by no means guaranteed that it's hard to see how they would have the energy left to do anything significant on North Korea. It just takes all the energy away from the administration."

   jschang@yna.co.kr

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