Seoul - North Korea is enriching uranium, which could produce fuel for nuclear weapons, South Korea's defence minister said Tuesday. "It seems it is definitely being pursued," Lee Sang Hee said at a National Assembly hearing.
Highly enriched uranium can be used to produce atomic weapons, and Lee said uranium enrichment can be more easily hid from the international community than producing weapons-suitable plutonium from spent nuclear fuel because it requires an area of only 600 to 1,000 square metres.
North Korea announced in mid-June that it would produce further nuclear weapons and conduct uranium enrichment in response to an expansion of sanctions against it by the UN Security Council following North Korea's second nuclear test on May 25.
It said it intended to turn newly created plutonium stores into nuclear weapons and accelerate uranium-enrichment projects with the construction of a series of light-water reactors.
An independent examination of North Korea's nuclear activities has not been possible since it expelled international inspectors in April, but the United States has suspected for years that North Korea has had a uranium-enrichment programme as part of its efforts to produce atomic bombs.
Lee also suggested Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health could be deteriorating. South Korean intelligence agencies have said Kim, 67, suffered a stroke in August.
South Korea's military "is intensely monitoring [the situation] while bearing in mind the possibilities that Kim's health has degraded," Lee said, citing speculation that the South's totalitarian neighbour recently fabricated a report on a field inspection by Kim by using an old photo of the leader.
Meanwhile, a delegation of South Korean officials travelled to North Korea Tuesday to prepare for talks on the future of the final remaining joint economic project between both countries, an industrial park at the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
Thursday's talks are to take place at the park. A round of negotiations June 19 aimed at keeping the park in operation ended without progress.
South Korea has rejected the North's demands for an increase in rental fees by 3,000 per cent to 500 million dollars over 50 years and to quadruple the wages of the North Korean workers employed by South Korean firms at the park to 300 dollars per month.
North Korea also refused to release a detained South Korean park worker who had allegedly criticized the government in Pyongyang.
