Amid efforts to restart six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear aims, South Korea has been trying to play down the diplomatic impact of an unsanctioned laser enrichment test with uranium at the state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute.

Seoul's admission of the test was followed by its disclosure that government scientists extracted a small amount of plutonium in a one-off experiment in 1982.

In a report from Vienna, quoting diplomatic sources, the Yomiuri Shimbun said South Korea had run a number of experiments in the 1990s related to laser tests to enrich uranium.

While it is unclear whether those tests went as far as producing enriched uranium, it strongly suggests that planning went into the uranium tests and they were done over a long period of time, the Yomiuri said.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 18, 2004
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