[imText1]WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) — North Korea may export nuclear technology to terror groups, which is a reason why the world should seriously address the North’s announcement that it plans to test a nuclear bomb, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday.
“We have no way of knowing” if Pyongyang has nuclear weapons, but the regime has demonstrated willingness to sell its nuclear technology to the highest bidder, he said.
“There’s a lot we can’t confirm as to the public pronouncements they’ve made,” he said, answering reporters’ questions after meeting with Croatia’s Defense Minister Berislav Roncevic in Washington.
“We keep track of what’s taking place, to the extent you can in a closed society, which North Korea is,” he said.
In Tuesday’s announcement, North Korea said it will conduct a nuclear test in the future and that it is compelled to do so by U.S. hostility.
South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia — the countries involved in the negotiations with North Korea to resolve the dispute over its nuclear weapons program — called on the North to abstain from such a test. The six-party talks have been in limbo since November.
Rumsfeld said diplomacy is still an effective means of addressing the issue. U.S. President George W. Bush has promoted the six-party talks as the way to resolve the nuclear dispute, he said.
The international community should increase its leverage to stop North Korea from developing its nuclear technology, because the North’s ongoing moves can encourage other countries to develop nuclear technology of their own, Rumsfeld said.
