Researcher: North Korea Has `Weaponized' Plutonium

Via Yahoo! News (AP) -

North Korea has hardened its stance on disarmament, saying it has "weaponized" plutonium into warheads, but hopes for better ties with President-elect Barack Obama, a U.S. researcher who visited the North said Saturday.

Officials say the weapons cannot be inspected and Pyongyang might keep them even if it normalizes relations with Washington, said Selig Harrison, director of the Washington-based Center for International Policy's Asia program.

Harrison, who has visited the North 11 times since 1972, said he met this week with the North's nuclear envoy, Ri Gun, and other officials.

The officials said "North Korea is now a nuclear weapons state and will not commit itself now on when it will give it up as a result of denuclearization negotiations," Harrison told reporters in Beijing. "We are not in a position to say when we will abandon nuclear weapons," he quoted Ri as saying.

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"All of those I met said the North has already weaponized the 30.8 kilograms (67.8 pounds) of plutonium listed in its formal declaration and that the weapons cannot be inspected," Harrison said. When he asked what "weaponized" meant, "the answer I got was, `It means warheads.'"

He said that much plutonium would produce four to five warheads, depending on the grade of plutonium, the specific weapons design and the desired explosive yield.

North Korea has tested ballistic missiles, fueling fears it might be trying to develop one that can carry a nuclear warhead.

Also Saturday, North Korea's military called South Korea's president a "traitor" and accused him of preparing for a military provocation. In the rare statement, which was carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the military warned that Seoul's hard-line stance compelled Pyongyang to "take an all-out confrontational posture."

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Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the comments could be a negotiating tactic aimed at Seoul and Washington ahead of Obama's inauguration Tuesday.

In a separate statement Saturday carried by the KCNA, the North Korean foreign ministry said the country "can live without normalizing the relations with the U.S., but not without nuclear deterrent."