Claims that North Korea paid Pakistan for access to Nuclear Technology

[Vanoi]

http://news.yahoo.com/claims-nkorea-...014217043.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — The founder of Pakistan's nuclear bomb program claims the North Korean government bribed top military officials in Pakistan to obtain access to sensitive nuclear technology in the late 1990s, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Abdul Qadeer Khan made available documents that he said supported his claim that he transferred more than $3 million in payments by North Korea to senior officers in the Pakistani military, the newspaper said on its website. Khan said the Pakistani military later approved his sharing of technical know-how and equipment with North Korean scientists.
Khan also released what he said was a copy of a North Korean official's 1998 letter to him, written in English, that purports to describe the secret deal, the newspaper said.
Some Western intelligence officials and other experts have said that they think the letter is authentic. Pakistani officials have called the letter a fake. Khan, who has been hailed in his country as a national hero, is at odds with many Pakistani officials, who have said he acted alone in selling nuclear secrets.

This is coming from the guy who helped found Pakistan's nuclear bomb program.

To me this is ridiculous. It just shows Pakistan is not responsible wiht its own nuclear technology and shouldn't allowed to have nuclear weapons in the first place. I honestly just don't know how Pakistan can embarrass itself anymore. Pakistan cannot eb trusted as an ally, and I wish the US would stop sending aid to them. Not only are part of thier government aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan which is hampering US efforts there; now they are possinly selling their own nuclear secrets to rough states such as North Korea.

[hellheaven1987]

Nuclear technology leak from Pakistan is not an uncommon thing to hear... Anyway not giving aid to Pakistan probably means its nuclear technology would be leaked even heavily and at worst a few nuclear weapons fell into black market...

You can say Pakistan is using nuclear weapon to get aid...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Q...investigations

[Vanoi]

Nuclear technology leak from Pakistan is not an uncommon thing to hear... Anyway not giving aid to Pakistan probably means its nuclear technology would be leaked even heavily and at worst a few nuclear weapons fell into black market...

You can say Pakistan is using nuclear weapon to get aid...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Q...investigations

So we should keep giving them aid, even though though Pakistan is aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan which is hampering US efforts there? That to me should be enough reason to stop giving them aid. Maybe China will give them some money or something they seem to be good friends with China.

[Babur]

So we should keep giving them aid, even though though Pakistan is aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan which is hampering US efforts there? That to me should be enough reason to stop giving them aid. Maybe China will give them some money or something they seem to be good friends with China.

Considering that China has close relations with North Korea, they may have had some knowledge of this.

[Gumpfendorfer]

This is all old news, it's been known for years and years by everybody. AQ Khan was the fall guy for the Army, it was Aslam Beg the former Chief of Staff who personally made the deal with Iran to deliver the centrifuges for uranium enrichment, it was Bhutto who carried the blueprints of the centrifuges to North Korea in exchange for missile technology, which probably has been re-sold to Iran afterwards by Pakistan. It has offered Saddam a nuclear devise with the missiles, wrapped up with a purple ribbon. Saddam didn't trust it.

AQ Khan taking the blame was a deal between Bush and Musharraf, when things became really critical -two aids of Musharraf had been talking to AQ and the Taliban to sell nuclear weapons or material, forcing the Americans to act. And Libya off course. Bush decided to let Pakistan of the hook once more with disastrous consequences.

The most worrying thing though is that we still don't know what they are up to and to whom they have sold material in the past. It is known that there was another client, but they never could trace back who or which country that was.

[mrmouth]

It is amazing to me that the proliferation that has come from the fall of the USSR and this particular nuclear deal/s isnt more known. You have former Soviet controlled countries where counter proliferation is a daily fight. Hundreds of cases a year where nuclear technology changes hands illegally. And it isn't just materials that could contribute to a dirty bomb, but substantial amounts of plutonium, etc. And we know it has made it's way to the Middle East and Central Asia.

And then occasionally you come across a small blurb backed by good sources, and never gets anyones attention.. This was a Wikileaks publishing that got very little attention...April 2011:

Thousands of classified American cables obtained by the WikiLeaks website detail the international struggle to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear, chemical and biological material around the globe. Al-Qaida is on the verge of producing radioactive weapons after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build “dirty” bombs, according to leaked diplomatic documents. A leading atomic regulator has privately warned that the world stands on the brink of a “nuclear 9/11″.

Security briefings suggest that jihadi groups are also close to producing “workable and efficient” biological and chemical weapons that could kill thousands if unleashed in attacks on the West.

At a Nato meeting in January 2009, security chiefs briefed member states that al-Qaida was plotting a program of “dirty radioactive IEDs”, makeshift nuclear roadside bombs that could be used against British troops in Afghanistan.

The briefings also state that al-Qaida documents found in Afghanistan in 2007 revealed that “greater advances” had been made in bioterrorism than was previously realized.

An Indian national security adviser told American security personnel in June 2008 that terrorists had made a “manifest attempt to get fissile material” and “have the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb”

[Heathen Hammer]

Considering that China has close relations with North Korea, they may have had some knowledge of this.

Probably. But than again, China probably isn't too happy about NATO occupying land close to its borders, so I doubt they'd cooperate with it on this issue either.

[Babur]

Probably. But than again, China probably isn't too happy about NATO occupying land close to its borders, so I doubt they'd cooperate with it on this issue either.

Afghanistan has a tiny border with China, I doubt it would concern them much.The Wakhan Corridor is sparsely populated and is difficult to traverse.

[Prosaic Visitant]

Military officials from the 'Pure Land' are possibly aided a tyrant with nuclear weaponry while covering it up?

That doesn't sound like Pakistan to me

[Aymer de Valence]

Not surprised in the slightest, just keeps getting worse and worse for them doesn't it

[Babur]

Yet Abdul Qadeer Khan is considered a hero in Pakistan

[Tiberios]

No surprise.

[Babur]

Ideally there would be no nuclear weapons in the region.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

Ideally there would be no nuclear weapons in the region.

True.I agree. Its also a pity that Pakistan cant be more like India Babur?

[(s)AINT]

Pakistan is a hole of a country. Can't even keep secret nuclear intel safe. Wow. Great job. You ed up government of pakistan.

[Sphere]

A blemish on the otherwise spotless reputation of Pakistan.

[Aymer de Valence]

haha rep+

[Caelifer_1991]

So long as India as nuclear weapons Pakistan needs them too, they may not have prevented conflicts but they have certainly destroyed any chance that such conflicts would become particularly serious, as in total war, invasions of capital cities, etc.

[saglam2000]

What they pay them with? starving child labour?