April 1, 2003

By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, March 31 - The Bush administration has imposed

sanctions against a major Pakistani nuclear laboratory -

the first such action since Pakistan became an ally in the

battle against terrorism - for its role in helping North

Korea obtain crucial equipment and designs to produce

nuclear weapons, administration officials said today.

With its actions, the administration has publicly

acknowledged for the first time that Pakistan was the

critical supplier of the technology that enabled North

Korea to develop a clandestine project to build weapons

from highly enriched uranium. In return, Pakistan received

North Korean missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, and

picked them up last summer in an American-made C-130 cargo

plane that belongs to the Pakistan Air Force.

When the transactions were first revealed last fall, senior

administration officials declined to comment on the report.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters in

October that when he called Pakistan's president, Gen.

Pervez Musharraf, to discuss the subject, "He said, `Four

hundred percent assurance that there is no such interchange

taking place now." He added: "We didn't talk about the

past."

Other administration officials said that they were

reluctant to act against Pakistan for fear that the uneasy

alliance with General Musharraf might be harmed. Most

sanctions against Pakistan in relation to its own

development of nuclear weapons were lifted after the Sept.

11, 2001, attacks, in return for Pakistan's cooperation in

the pursuit of Qaeda members.

After months of debate, including a trip to Pakistan by

President Bush's deputy national security adviser, Stephen

J. Hadley, administration officials decided this month to

impose a relatively mild penalty: A two-year ban on any

dealings with the A. Q. Khan Research Institute, a

government-affiliated nuclear research laboratory where

much of the work on Pakistan's own nuclear weapons program

took place in the 1980's and 1990's.

The laboratory is named for the man considered the father

of the Pakistani bomb, though he was removed from his post

under American pressure two years ago, and is suspected by

American intelligence agencies of bartering in Pakistani

nuclear technology.

"We couldn't ignore this, given the enormous damage it did

to our effort to keep North Korea from expanding its

arsenal," said one senior administration official. "But

there was a lot of pressure not to embarrass Musharraf,"

who may or may not have known of the exchanges, the

official said. He noted that the action "comes at a moment

when people aren't going to pay a lot of attention."

In fact, it was announced first by the Pakistanis

themselves, who said the action would not impede their

nuclear program. A statement from the United States Embassy

in Islamabad said the laboratory was charged with "material

contribution to the efforts of a foreign country, person or

entity of proliferation concern, to use, acquire, design,

develop and or secure weapons of mass destruction," but did

not name the country that had received the goods.

The Khan laboratory is about 20 miles from Islamabad. It

has long been the centerpiece of Pakistan's nuclear weapons

program, and North Korea has apparently tried to replicate

part of it.

The Khan laboratory includes a uranium enrichment plant

that uses centrifuge technology similar to what North Korea

is believed to be developing. Dr. Khan is believed to have

brought the design to Pakistan from the Netherlands nearly

three decades ago.

"The question facing us," said one senior administration

official, "comes down to this: Is the Khan lab

proliferating with the knowledge of the Pakistani

leadership? Or is it on its own?" In private conversations,

Mr. Powell has urged Mr. Musharraf to regain control of the

laboratory, American officials say.

To this day, American officials say, they do not know the

location of the North Korean uranium project. But they have

concluded that North Korea is moving forward quickly on an

effort to build a cascade of centrifuges needed to enrich

uranium.

The secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, told Congress

recently that the North Korean program could begin

producing weapons by the end of next year, sooner than

initial American estimates.

At the same time, North Korea is openly preparing to

restart its plutonium weapons program, its much better

known effort to build a weapon. That program was frozen

from 1994 until American officials confronted North Korea

with evidence that it was cheating on an agreement with the

United States and proceeding with the secret uranium

project.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial/01KORE.html?ex=1050235811&ei=1&en=32a9f4774e2663a8

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