Search the Internet          Tips

Pakistan denies supplying nuclear materials to North Korea

K J M Varma in Islamabad

Pakistan on Monday brushed aside reports accusing it of supplying nuclear weapons and technology to North Korea in exchange for missile technology saying the country had a strong export control regime in place.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said the story that appeared in The New York Times on Monday, charging Islamabad with having entered into clandestine weapons deals with Pyongyang, was "baseless, motivated and malicious".

"Islamabad's commitment that it will not export any sensitive technology to third countries remains unquestionable," he said.

The report, quoting intelligence sources, said North Korea provided Pakistan with missile parts needed to build a nuclear arsenal capable of reaching "every strategic site in India", and in return Pakistan had provided North Korea with designs for gas centrifuges and other machinery needed to make highly enriched uranium.

The paper said Islamabad and Pyongyang had a much deeper than suspected relationship in bartering Pakistani uranium enrichment equipment for North Korean ballistic missile parts.

A Pakistani plane, it said had flown into North Korea, even in July this year to bring ballistic missile parts to the country.

The paper had first reported in October that Pakistan had supplied machinery to North Korea to make weapons-grade uranium.

Tell us what you think of this report