Seoul: The South Korean unification ministry has explained to the United States that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young identified North Korea’s Kusong region as the third location housing a uranium enrichment facility based on publicly available information, officials said Friday.
In a rare revelation of information about North Korea, Chung said in a parliamentary session in March that North Korea is running another uranium enrichment facility in the northwestern region of Kusong, along with previously reported ones in Yongbyon and Kangson.
The local newspaper DongA Ilbo reported the US has strongly protested to South Korea over Chung’s remarks, citing the revelation of sensitive information about the North. It said Washington has delivered its intent to limit sharing information with Seoul over North Korea.
The unification ministry said Chung pointed to Kusong as the North’s third location housing a nuclear facility based on publicly available information.
“We’ve adequately explained to the US the background of the minister’s remarks. We understand that the US is also aware of it,” Chang Yoon-jeong, deputy spokesperson at the ministry, told a press briefing.
“We also understand that we’ve not received any information about Kusong from other institutions,” she stressed.
In regard to the news report on Washington’s protest, the deputy spokesperson said that the ministry explained the background of Chung’s remarks to the US Embassy in Seoul at the request of the embassy, Yonhap news agency reported.
“We are not aware of the US side’s protest,” Chang said, adding that the ministry also does not know about whether there are restrictions of information sharing between South Korea and the US.
The newspaper, citing sources in South Korea and the United States, said Washington had indicated it would partially restrict the sharing of North Korea-related intelligence with Seoul, with Chung’s remarks serving as the trigger amid broader accumulated US frustration over a series of bilateral foreign and security disagreements.
(IANS)
