By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter


Laboratory experiments in South Korea in the past that produced tiny amounts of nuclear material were not linked to any secret weapons development program, the U.N. atomic agency said in its report Friday.

A report drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the nation’s recently revealed nuclear activities has been circulated to the 35 member states on its board of governors, according to sources.

As the IAEA has completed its report, attentions are now being drawn to whether the controversial case will be referred to the U.N. Security Council or simply be resolved at a board meeting slated for Nov. 25, to which the report will be officially presented.

A Seoul official said the IAEA report does not include any judgment concerning values but only enumerates ``objective facts’’ on the laboratory experiments that were carried out in 1982 and 2000 with plutonium and uranium, respectively.

``There is no judgment on whether South Korea failed to fulfill its duties as an IAEA member state, nor does it mention whether the nuclear materials were of weapons grade,’’ the official said on condition of anonymity. ``There is no expression like `weapons grade’ in the report.’’

According to the 8-page report, the average enrichment level of the 0.2-gram uranium produced in the 2000 experiment was 10.2 percent, but a very small amount was close to 77 percent. As far as the quality is concerned, uranium enriched to 90 percent is generally considered weapons grade.

The average enrichment level of the plutonium produced in the 1982 tests was about 98 percent, according to the report, but the tiny amount _ 0.7 gram _ was regarded as far too small to have any link to a clandestine atomic weapons program.

Though it acknowledged the experiments were ``laboratory-scale’’ and the amounts of nuclear materials involved ``relatively small,’’ the IAEA stated that it was ``a matter of serious concern’’ that the South Korean government had failed to report them properly.

The report is the culmination of three on-site surveys over the past couple of months by the Vienna-based organization’s special inspection teams. The IAEA has praised South Korea’s ``active cooperation’’ in the inspections.

Seoul hopes the cases will be brought to an early end at the Nov. 25 board meeting without being passed onto the U.N. Security Council, which might lead to punitive measures.

Lee Jong-seok, deputy head of the National Security Council and currently visiting the United States, said he had asked senior Washington officials for cooperation for the fair resolution of the issue of Seoul’s nuclear experiments.

``Our government has dealt with the issue transparently in active cooperation with the IAEA, and it is not a matter to attract suspicions,’’ Lee said, adding that U.S. officials, including Undersecretary of State John Bolton, shared the view.

However, Bolton, the chief U.S. arms control official, had expressed the view that South Korea should face U.N. scrutiny over its recently revealed nuclear experiments, according to media reports.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr