Hill Says North Korea's Uranium Program Is a `Serious Problem'

The chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea said today that the communist nation's enriched uranium program remains a ``very serious problem,'' as he defended the disarmament agreement he helped bring about earlier this month.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said North Korea has made ``certain purchases'' of equipment that are consistent with making highly enriched uranium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.

"We will face the problem, in fact the very serious problem, of the highly enriched uranium program,'' in subsequent negotiations with the North Koreans, Hill said today in Washington at the Brookings Institution, a policy study group. He also said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her North Korean counterpart in two months if the government of Kim Jong Il keeps its promises.

The U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia earlier this month negotiated an agreement with North Korea that requires the Asian country to dismantle its acknowledged plutonium-based nuclear program in return for energy, economic and humanitarian assistance.

Critics, including John Bolton, the former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, have asked why the accord doesn't address the highly enriched uranium program that North Korea once acknowledged having and now denies.

Nuclear Test

``This deal says nothing about the North Korean program to achieve nuclear weapons through highly enriched uranium,'' Bolton told Cable News Network on Feb. 12. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test on Oct. 9, saying it used plutonium extracted from spent fuel rods and not enriched uranium.

Hill today defended the agreement, saying it is an early step in a process that will continue.

``We are very mindful of the fact that we have a long way to go,'' he said, according to a transcript of his remarks at Brookings.

While the North Koreans continue to deny having a highly enriched uranium program, ``they have been willing to discuss what we know and to try to resolve this with the idea to resolve this to mutual satisfaction,'' Hill said today. ``We don't know whether we're going to be able to do that, but we have agreed to have this discussion.''

The accord requires North Korea to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor within 60 days in order to receive 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil and a further 950,000 tons if the regime disables the plant. The U.S. and Japan will hold separate talks with North Korea aimed at beginning steps to normalize relations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Judy Mathewson in Washington at jmathewson@bloomberg.net.