Pakistan to share nuke evidence
 |
Abdul Qadeer Khan is revered as Pakistan's "father of the bomb."
Story Tools
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's president has pledged to provide Japan with information from its investigation in the black market transfer of nuclear secrets to North Korea.
Pyongyang denies it received technology from Abdul Qadeer Khan -- the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program who has confessed he leaked secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran.
During a meeting Wednesday with a Japan's deputy foreign minister, President Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan would hand over information to Japan when its investigation is complete, The Associated Press reported.
Japan will join the United States at a six-party meeting on North Korea's nuclear program in Beijing later this month.
U.S. officials have expressed hope that information from Pakistan could help clarify details about North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Musharraf has said it took three years before he got convincing proof from the U.S. that Khan was selling weapons technology. (Nuke probe 'took years')
After a six-month break, talks on North Korea's nuclear program are scheduled to resume February 25. Pyongyang has accused Washington of playing up the Pakistan-North Korea nuclear connection as a way of scuttling the talks.
"The U.S. smear campaign would only provide [North Korea] with an opportunity to realize once again what a just measure it took to build nuclear deterrent force."
The nuclear dispute flared in October 2002, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international agreements.
Representatives of six nations -- the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea -- held talks in Beijing in August over Pyongyang's nuclear program, but took months to set a date for the second round of talks.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
