The denial -- stated repeatedly during a government interview with foreign news media Sept. 3 -- came a day after South Korea admitted its scientists conducted an unauthorized experiment in 2000 to enrich a small amount of uranium.

That admission to the International Atomic Energy Agency raised speculation the country may have secretly dabbled with a weapons program, complicating an international standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons development.

"South Korea has never had, and does not have, enrichment or nuclear reprocessing programs, let alone a weaponization program," said Oh Joon, director general for international organizations at South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

Oh referred to the 2000 enrichment test -- conducted at the country's nuclear research center south of Seoul -- as an "isolated scientific experiment," and dismissed any comparisons between it and suspected nuclear programs in such countries as Iran and North Korea.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 11, 2004
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