Newspaper links mysterious murder to
Pak-North Korea nuclear deal
A mysterious murder that took place here soon after Pakistan exploded its nuclear device in May last year may have something to do with a suspected Pak-North Korea nuclear deal, according to an influential American newspaper.
Kim, the wife of a North Korean diplomat, was shot dead in her
house in Islamabad in June, but the police filed no report nor did
newspapers mention it. Los Angles Times has reported that her
husband Kang Thae Yun, believed to be a key figure in North Korea's
secretive missile programme, left the country.
The Los Angeles Times correspondent, who filed this story, quoted
an un-named United States official to say that it was highly probable that North Korean technicians were working in Pakistani laboratories.
But Dr A Q Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, denied
this suspicion and said North Koreans were capable of developing a
nuclear bomb on their own. He, however, said Pakistan, no matter how
economically desperate, would never turn over such secrets.
The newspaper quoted another unnamed official as saying: ''She
was killed on purpose -- probably by her own government -- because she
was spilling secrets about North Korea's missile and nuclear
programmes or because she was planning to defect. She was
murdered.'' But Dr Khan said he found out from intelligence agencies
that Kim's death was only an accident.
Pakistan is suspected to be helping North Korea with nuclear
technology in exchange for the missile technology it received from
the country.
In june this year, India seized a North Korean cargo ship that it
said was bound for Karachi and was carrying 177 crates of
blueprints, manuals, parts and machine tools for scud missiles. But
Pakistan said the ship was headed somewhere else.
UNI
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