N Korea nuclear report doubted

The impoverished North's nuclear sophistication is open to question

A report that North Korea could be developing the technology to fit nuclear warheads onto its missiles has been met with scepticism by officials in the South.

The New York Times said on Tuesday that US satellites had identified a new nuclear testing site in the North where such technology could be worked on.

Both the US and South Korean governments have refused to comment on the report.

But officials in the South told news agencies they knew of no evidence to suggest Pyongyang was working on miniaturised warheads.

South Korea's National Assembly has ordered its intelligence, foreign affairs and defence committees to convene special sessions to examine the report, according to the French news agency AFP.

"The New York Times report is shocking," Park Jin, an opposition lawmaker, said in a statement.

"The government should not conceal any key information that can seriously affect our national security," the Grand National Party spokesman said.

According to the New York Times, some intelligence officials believe the newly discovered site at Youngdoktong is evidence that the North intends to develop weapons light enough to put on top of its missiles.

This would make North Korea much more of a threat to its neighbour, Japan, which the North flew a missile over in 1998.

'No proof'

South Korea's Yonhap news agency and Hankyoreh newspaper both cited an official as saying that the intelligence about Youngdoktong was old.

"Youngdoktong in North Pyongan Province is the place Seoul and Washington authorities have long suspected as a nuclear testing site since the 1990s," an official affiliated with the South's presidential office told Yonhap.

He said that this did not prove that the North was developing new nuclear weapons technology.

"The report is merely a presumption and lacks confirmed facts. There has been no detection of explosive-testing equipment there," Yonhap quoted him as saying.

The US is currently trying to co-ordinate policy on North Korea with Pyongyang's Asian neighbours, including South Korea and Japan.

Officials from Japan and China met on Wednesday to organise a high-level meeting on the North in Beijing as early as Sunday, Kyodo news agency reported.