By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has begun analyzing samples and information gathered during its second round of inspection on South Korea’ controversial nuclear experiments.

Wrapping up its weeklong inspection, a five-member team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog left Seoul Sunday, taking with it about 20 samples from nuclear material and wastes left over from the 1982 and 2000 experiments, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The IAEA team visited the Koesan region in North Chungchong Province, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, where South Korea’s past government had once tried to develop a uranium mine.

A ministry official, however, bristled at the suggestion that the uranium was part of a larger government nuclear program. ``Uranium reserves of 120 million tons were discovered in the Koesan area in the 1970s, but the government decided not to develop it because of low economic viability,’’ a ministry official said.

The IAEA mission also inspected the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute in Taejon, and another nuclear research center in Seoul. ``The government showed the IAEA inspectors what they wanted to see,’’ said the official. ``They thanked the government for its cooperation.’’

The inspection team’s mission was to follow up on the IAEA’s first check of the South Korean nuclear facilities in question from Aug. 31 to Sept. 5, which the organization says was not enough to resolve all suspicions over the country’s past nuclear activities.

Seoul faces scrutiny on a total of six nuclear-related matters including an unauthorized experiment with plutonium in 1982 and a uranium enrichment test in 2000. Tests on plutonium and enriched uranium are strictly monitored by the IAEA as they are two key ingredients of nuclear weapons.

The truth behind the allegations is expected to be disclosed in November, when the IAEA chief plans to report the results of the inspections to a meeting of the agency’s board of directors.

In a related development, a foreign news agency Monday reported that the IAEA suspects South Korea’s past experiments with small amounts of plutonium and uranium may have been connected to a nuclear weapons development program that Seoul pursued in the 1970s.

Quoting unidentified diplomatic sources in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported the watchdog believes the South Korean government might have continued the secret research to maintain basic nuclear weapons technologies it gained from the program under the Park Chung-hee administration.

The allegation ran counter to a widely accepted belief that the South Korean government suspended the nuclear development program under U.S. pressure before signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty in the late 1970s.

The South Korean government, which maintains the experiments were only for academic research, has said it has no intention to develop or possess any nuclear arms and will continue to comply with every international agreement, including the IAEA safeguard agreements.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr