N. Korea's Uranium Program Moving Ahead, Kelly Says

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NORTH KOREA'S SUSPECTED uranium-enrichment program is "not so far behind" its plutonium-based nuclear program in its capacity to produce nuclear weapons-grade material, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly testified in a March 12 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Kelly said the uranium-enrichment program could produce fissile material in "probably...months and not years." This assertion differs somewhat from earlier U.S. government estimates. A February 27 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report cites a December 2002 CIA statement that Pyongyang's uranium-enrichment program "likely" could produce a nuclear weapon in 2004, apparently supporting Kelly's claim. …