Concerns Persist on North Korean Uranium Enrichment, U.S. Says

There are persistent concerns within the U.S. intelligence community that North Korea is seeking to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said yesterday.

Pyongyang is known to have produced enough plutonium to fuel several bombs, but in public it has consistently denied conducting uranium operations. The Bush administration's allegation on North Korean enrichment led to the collapse of the 1994 Agreed Framework, the Clinton-era deal intended to shutter the regime's nuclear weapons activities.

"Prior to [North Korea's October 2006 nuclear test] we assessed that North Korea produced enough plutonium for at least half a dozen nuclear weapons," Blair said in presenting the U.S. intelligence community's annual threat assessment to lawmakers. ....