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Axis of Evil
In what is being called both an intelligence success and failure, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have discovered evidence North Korea secretly supplied Libyia with 1.7 tons of uranium for its nuclear weapons program in 2001, the New York Times has reported.
The material, in the form of uranium hexafloride, was not sufficiently potent to use as nuclear fuel but appears to have been slated for testing in thousands of centrifuges being constructed in Libya with help from the network of secret suppliers set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's main nuclear laboratory. Centrifuges are required to concentrate the U-235 isotope, which is at a level of about 1 percent in the hexaflourine, to 90 percent for weapons grade uranium.
If IAEA intelligence is confirmed, this will be the first known instance of the North Koreans selling key ingredients for the manufacture of nuclear weapons to another country. To date, the North Koreans were believed to have restricted their involvement in major weapons' proliferation to missile technology. It was reported that the recent train explosion in that country destroyed a shipment of missiles destined for Syria .
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