IAEA slaps Seoul over nuke tests
From CNN National Security Producer Pam Benson
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency has determined that secret experiments conducted in South Korea produced small amounts of weapons-grade nuclear material, but the quantities were not significant.
A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency says its verification efforts so far have shown "there is no indication that the undeclared experiments have continued."
Earlier this year, the South Korea government notified the IAEA that scientists there had conducted laboratory-scale experiments involving uranium enrichment and plutonium separation.
The South Korean government maintained it had been unaware of the unauthorized experiments, which occurred between 1982 and 2000.
South Korea has denied it has any ambitions to build nuclear weapons.
The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei visited South Korea in October as part of the investigation into the unauthorized nuclear research.
The IAEA report obtained by CNN is critical of the South Korean government for failing to notify the agency of the nuclear activities as it is required to do by international nuclear protocols.
"Although the quantities of nuclear material involved have not been significant, the nature of the activities -- uranium enrichment and plutonium separation -- and the failures of the ROK to report these activities in a timely manner ... is a matter of serious concern," says the report. Republic of Korea is South Korea's official name.
The report praises South Korea's active cooperation with the IAEA, but it calls on the government to provide more detailed information on the nuclear experiments so that the investigation can be completed.
The revelation of the South Korean nuclear activities has further complicated the already difficult efforts to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.
While not part of the agency's purview, the experiments also appeared to contravene a 1992 agreement between North and South Korea aimed at making the peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
That agreement included a commitment to desist from uranium enrichment and related activities that could be used for arms.
North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in 2002 and warned it was working on developing nuclear weapons.
