Reports that North Korea is making preparations for a ballistic missile test is "only rumors and guesses," a senior North Korean diplomat said on Monday. In a rare news conference with a small group of reporters, Choe Su Hon, vice foreign minister, was asked about statements by U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials that intelligence had shown missile test preparations. "It is only rumors and guesses," Choe said. He noted that North Korea last tested a missile in 1998 and said it was obvious "We have the capability to produce various kinds of missiles... We don't have anything to hide on that." Choe also reiterated claims that North Korea had weaponized the fuel from 8,000 reprocessed spent fuel rods, which experts say could boost Pyongyang's nuclear arms cache from one or two to eight nuclear bombs. "We declared that we had weaponized these," he said. Choe also charged that rival South Korea could not have carried out recently revealed unauthorized nuclear experiments in 1982 and 2000 without U.S. technology and assistance, and said this cooperation must be fully clarified. "It could not be possible that South Korea conducts such experiments without U.S. technology and without the approval of the U.S.," he said of the experiments, which are now under review by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
