North Korea paid Pakistanis for nuclear tech, says AQ Khan

Parthy

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The founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program claims that in the late 1990s North Korean officials paid kickbacks to senior Pakistani military figures in exchange for critical weapons technology.

Abdul Qadeer Khan has given a United States-based expert documents that appear to show North Korea's government paid more than $3.5 million to two Pakistani military officials as part of the deal, the expert said on Wednesday.

To back up his claim, Khan 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.

Khan gave the documents to Simon Cameron of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an authority on Pakistan's weapons program. He did so because he has been accused by his government of running a covert nuclear smuggling operation without official knowledge or consent.

"He gave it to me because he regarded it as showing that the story, the perception that he had been a rogue operator was false," Cameron said.

The letter, along with a statement by Khan describing the deal, suggests that at least some top-level Pakistani military officials knew early on about some of Khan's extensive sale of nuclear weapons technology to other countries, including North Korea, Iran and Libya.

If that's true, it could deepen the distrust between the United States and Pakistan, which are struggling to set aside their differences and cooperate in the battle against militant extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The significance of the revelation is in dispute. Cameron said the documents prove Khan's claims that his nuclear arms smuggling network had high-level support from the Pakistani government, but others say the letter bolsters the government's claims it didn't know what Khan was up to.

The Washington Post said it obtained the documents and first reported on them on its website Wednesday after a lengthy effort to authenticate them.

The letter Khan released is dated July 15, 1998, and marked "Secret." It carries the apparent signature of North Korean Workers Party Secretary Jon Byong Ho.

The text says, "Please give the agreed documents, components, etc. to a ... (North Korean Embassy official in Pakistan) to be flown back when our plane returns after delivery of missile components."

The letter never mentions the word nuclear. But Khan's written description of the events surrounding the letter, which was not published by the Post, makes it clear that the Workers Party official was referring to components and plans for Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

Highly enriched uranium can be used either to make fuel for nuclear reactors or to form the explosive core of a nuclear weapon.

Jehangir Karamat, a former Pakistani military chief named as the recipient of the $3 million, said the letter was untrue. In an email to the Post from Lahore, Karamat said Khan, as part of his defense against allegations of personal responsibility for illicit nuclear proliferation, had tried "to shift blame on others."

The other official, retired Lt. Gen. Zulfiqar Khan, called the letter "a fabrication."

The Post said the assertions by Khan and the details in the letter could not be independently verified.

But the newspaper quoted one senior US official who said the signature appeared genuine and the contents were "consistent with our knowledge" of the events described. Another intelligence official said the letter contained information known only to a handful of people.

Khan has long denied claims that he was working behind his government's back in his covert nuclear technology sales to foreign governments.

"This is a piece of dramatic evidence that Khan did not act as a single rogue agent, but instead was operating at the instruction of others," Cameron said. "I think the main point of this is that Pakistan used this technology to trade for diplomatic advantage."

David Albright, an authority on nuclear proliferation with the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, disagreed, saying the letter and Khan's narrative are evidence he acted alone.

"It shows that Khan was a rogue agent and that he colluded to provide centrifuge components to North Korea without Pakistani official approval," Albright said.

He said that in Khan's narrative, which has not been released, the scientist claimed he had assured the military that North Korea would not use the centrifuges for its nuclear weapons program, since it already had more advanced technology for that purpose.

Albright said the claim was false, but Pakistani military officials could have found it plausible.



North Korea paid Pakistanis for nuclear tech, says AQ Khan - The Times of India
 

debasree

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they dont pay it in cash as they have no money but give critical missile technolodgy to pakistan,everybody knows that,many article wrote in past about it.
 

Pakistani Nationalist

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they dont pay it in cash as they have no money but give critical missile technolodgy to pakistan,everybody knows that,many article wrote in past about it.
Where u there?


AQ Khan is just yapping now... i respected him... but now hes just acting like an attention seeker...
 

A.V.

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Where u there?


AQ Khan is just yapping now... i respected him... but now hes just acting like an attention seeker...
The bold part :-
It can be just the opposite of what you think or might be a middle part somewhere between real truth , all 3 possibilities are open .
What one needs to see is why does so many reports come out of nuclear proliferation from pakistan alone there are 180 odd other countries in the UN . My search for an answer was solved by the age of proverb " THERE IS NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE "
 

Pakistani Nationalist

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France,usa proliferated to israel, india >canada and USSR............ and AQ Khan sold useless cantrifuges to N.K...


But now hes crying abt bribes why didnt he come forwards before? anyways who cares.....
 

Yusuf

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You have to let us know how the soviets gave India nukes or its tech.

Canada gave us a civil reactor. They did not proliferate. They withdrew all nuke support to India after 74. All fuel supply stopped.
 

Yusuf

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Where u there?


AQ Khan is just yapping now... i respected him... but now hes just acting like an attention seeker...
Why didn't you guys hand him over to the US if he was just a liar. There is more than enough evidence that AQ with the active support of his masters in Pindi proliferated. The Americans are just kind to you by saying he is rogue. Thank the geopolitical situation right mow. If there was no WoT, you guys would have been screwed long back as far as your nukes and it's proliferation goes.
 

ejazr

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Here is the original interview in Der Spiegal

Pakistan's Nuclear Bomb: 'We May Be Naive, But We Are Not Idiots' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

He built Pakistan's nuclear bomb and is accused of having sold his knowledge to Libya and Iran. Since 2004, Abdul Qadeer Khan has been under a state of house arrest. In an e-mail interview, he now explains why he accepted sole blame for the accusations at the time and points a finger at the Pakistani army.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Recent attacks on a naval base in Karachi, Pakistan, which resulted in the deaths of 16 people, show that extremists are posing a serious threat to the government in Islamabad. How safe is the Pakistani nuclear arsenal?

Khan: This hype has been created by the West. There never was, there is not and there never will be any threat to our nuclear assets. Right from the early 1980s on, the army put a fully fail-safe mechanism in place, which was subsequently improved upon by successive army chiefs. The plant was always secured by a fully armed army contingent and the perimeters were made impregnable using various tiers. Since then the security of our nuclear assets has been taken care of by the National Command Authority which has put in place a system whereby decisions are to be taken by a number of people who also possess specific security codes. It would thus be impossible, even if there were an infiltration of extremists, to pass all the components of the security system and get to the bomb.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Nobody has been as active as you in the business of nuclear proliferation in problematic countries like Libya, Iran and North Korea. What drove you to do so? Was it money or the desire to help other Muslim countries build the bomb?

Khan: I did not indulge in proliferation and there is no such thing as an "A.Q. Khan Network."

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Excuse me?

Khan: International suppliers were willing to sell to anyone able to pay and they didn't need me for that. The suppliers to Libya and Iran were the same as the ones Khan Research Laboratories used. We had a contract with North Korea for the production of missiles. They already had their own plutonium production program and they used plutonium in their test procedures. Logistics and security at our plant was in the hands of the army and they checked each and every item that came in or left. How then could I have sent things to any country without the army's knowledge?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So you are seriously trying to suggest that you never dealt in nuclear weapons or benefited financially from doing so?

Khan: No, no and again no. I did not benefit financially. If that had been the case, would the Special Plans Division, the army unit I worked with, now be paying me a monthly "special pension"?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If nothing could be sent out of the country without the knowledge of the army, then who benefited from this major business? Certain officers?

Khan: Who benefited, I may not say.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Seven years ago, you publicly confessed to a television audience of millions that you sold nuclear technology out of greed for profit. You are retracting that statement today. Why?

Khan: I took sole blame for this whole episode because the political leadership urgently asked me to do so. General Pervez Musharraf promised me a full pardon with complete rehabilitation. However, within a few days the mischief started and he started talking of a "conditional pardon," the consequences of which we now all know. Our house was searched and bugged, our phones and Internet connection were disconnected.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So you are saying you feel you were tricked?

Khan: Tricked is not the right word. I feel stabbed in the back by the very people who benefited most from my work -- i.e., the army.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Could a nuclear war between India and Pakistan ever even be won by either of the countries?

Khan: Pakistan was forced to go nuclear in response to the Indian tests and political aggression. The deterrence of nuclear weapons lies in the fact that both sides know that the other can retaliate in kind. Had Japan had nuclear weapons during World War II, the Americans never would have dared to use theirs. There has not been a war in Europe since 1945 "¦

SPIEGEL ONLINE: "¦ other than the Balkan wars "¦

Khan: "¦ and there has not been one between India and Pakistan since 1971. The Kargil skirmishes were localized and the issue of the use of nuclear weapons never arose. We may be naive, but we are not idiots. Both sides know what the consequences would be.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If it did not have nuclear weapons, Pakistan would not currently be considered one of the world's most dangerous countries. Do you regret having built the bomb?

Khan: I still believe I did Pakistan a favor. Nuclear weapons are a means of ensuring peace by using it as a tit-for-tat threat. I am convinced that there will never be another war between India and Pakistan as a consequence thereof.
 

debasree

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Where u there?


AQ Khan is just yapping now... i respected him... but now hes just acting like an attention seeker...
that time cia chief himself said that,boy,can u deny urs master,they really know better about urs country than urs govt, like osama,where urs govt and isi was sleeping.
 

Parthy

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that time cia chief himself said that,boy,can u deny urs master,they really know better about urs country than urs govt, like osama,where urs govt and isi was sleeping.
Who told they were sleeping?? ISI & Pakistan Government were awake 24*7 to safeguard Osama and other extremists leaders resides in Pakistan....
 

asianobserve

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France,usa proliferated to israel, india >canada and USSR............ and AQ Khan sold useless cantrifuges to N.K...


But now hes crying abt bribes why didnt he come forwards before? anyways who cares.....
Useless centrifuges... I guess you can now make nuclear weapons with useless centrifuges... great!

What's next, Kennedy is still alive in another planet? The moon landings did not happen...
 

Blackwater

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France,usa proliferated to israel, india >canada and USSR............ and AQ Khan sold useless cantrifuges to N.K...


But now hes crying abt bribes why didnt he come forwards before? anyways who cares.....
The world cares. Yes they do, that's why you are in deep mess out of all 7 nukes countries around the world
 

Pakistani Nationalist

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Why didn't you guys hand him over to the US if he was just a liar. There is more than enough evidence that AQ with the active support of his masters in Pindi proliferated. The Americans are just kind to you by saying he is rogue. Thank the geopolitical situation right mow. If there was no WoT, you guys would have been screwed long back as far as your nukes and it's proliferation goes.
Why should we hand the guy to USA? he is the father of our a bomb... And us cant do jack abt it... This happened back in the 90s when we were under sanctions n usa dont do a damn thing.... what can they do now? sanction us? nope.... so who cares.

@debasree son my master is my God so watch ur mouth n get of those high horses of urs!
 

Oracle

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Why should we hand the guy to USA? he is the father of our a bomb... And us cant do jack abt it... This happened back in the 90s when we were under sanctions n usa dont do a damn thing.... what can they do now? sanction us? nope.... so who cares.

@debasree son my master is my God so watch ur mouth n get of those high horses of urs!
Abottabad! Rings any bell?

Drones strikes, rings another?
 

Pakistani Nationalist

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Abottabad! Rings any bell?

Drones strikes, rings another?
Didnt wiki leaks confirm it tht the drone strikes are done with the knowledge of army and infact they want more strikes on talibastards and the strikes are coordinated by both parties... who gives the ground info?

Abt abbotabad....Lots of ppl on TV channels r sayin the same crap.
 

Oracle

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Didnt wiki leaks confirm it tht the drone strikes are done with the knowledge of army and infact they want more strikes on talibastards and the strikes are coordinated by both parties... who gives the ground info?

Abt abbotabad....Lots of ppl on TV channels r sayin the same crap.
Strange that on another forum you say the opposite and slam wikileaks as propaganda.

About Abottabad, lot many conspiracy theorists are saying those same thing. All of those have refuge in Pakistan.
 

debasree

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Why should we hand the guy to USA? he is the father of our a bomb... And us cant do jack abt it... This happened back in the 90s when we were under sanctions n usa dont do a damn thing.... what can they do now? sanction us? nope.... so who cares.

@debasree son my master is my God so watch ur mouth n get of those high horses of urs!
ok i was wrong.u have three masters allah,america ,and army boooooooooooooy.
 

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