North Korea digs in as nuclear talks resume
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-14 06:54

The latest nuclear standoff was sparked in late 2002 after U.S. officials accused North Korea of running a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of an earlier deal, in which the North had agreed to stop weapons development in exchange for energy aid and other incentives.

The North has since denied having a uranium enrichment program, which would provide a way to create radioactive material for bombs other than its publicly acknowledged plutonium program.

On Tuesday, the North again called the uranium allegations "a sheer fabrication" in a commentary by the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told The New York Times in an interview released late Monday that he believed North Korea had obtained "probably a dozen" centrifuges — equipment needed to enrich uranium — from a network headed by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

However, hundreds of centrifuges are required to enrich enough uranium for a bomb, and there has been no publicized evidence the North has that many.