Khan 'gave centrifuges and designs to N. Korea'

Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf has given details for the first time on the kind of nuclear technology that former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan transferred to North Korea, a Japanese media report said yesterday.

Musharraf reportedly told Kyodo News agency in an interview that Khan provided centrifuge machines and their designs to North Korea. "Yes, he passed centrifuges parts and complete. I do not exactly remember the number," Musharraf told Kyodo in Islamabad.

Musharraf's spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said the Pakistani leader had confirmed that Khan provided centrifuges for enriching uranium and their designs to North Korea in an interview on Tuesday, but added that the technology was only a small part of what would be needed to develop a nuclear bomb.

Khan confessed in early 2004 that he had spread sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea without the knowledge of the government.

Khan, who is accused of operating an international black market network in weapons technology, was subsequently pardoned by Musharraf but is still kept under house arrest.

Musharraf told Kyodo that while the disgraced scientist's laboratory engaged in uranium enrichment, it was not involved in other key steps needed to make a nuclear bomb, such as conversion of uranium into gas and development of the trigger mechanism and delivery systems.

"So if North Korea has made a bomb ... Dr A.Q. Khan's part is only enriching the uranium to weapons grade. He does not know about making the bomb," he said. If the North Koreans have acquired such bomb-making capabilities, the they "must have got it themselves or somewhere else not from Pakistan," he said.

Kyodo said the Pakistani leader rejected media reports that Khan had bartered uranium enrichment secrets for North Korean help in developing Pakistan's medium-range Ghauri missile, which is believed to be an improved version of North Korea's Rodong missile.

He said Pakistan had cooperated with North Korea in the production of conventional weapons when it developed the shoulder-fired Anza missile and received artillery equipment.

Musharraf rejects media reports that Khan had bartered uranium enrichment secrets for North Korean help in developing Pakistan's medium-range Ghauri missile.