South Korean government scientists extracted a small amount of plutonium in a one-off experiment in 1982, Seoul admitted today in the second such disclosure in a week.
The South Koreans are already playing down the diplomatic impact of an unsanctioned laser enrichment test involving uranium at the state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute revealed earlier last week.
Today their science and technology ministry said the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) had checked details of the previously unreported plutonium experiment.
Investigations showed an "extremely small quantity of plutonium had been extracted between April and May 1982", the statement said.
The test took place at a research centre in a suburb of Seoul before the atomic institute moved to Taejon, south of the capital, where the uranium test was conducted four years ago.
Diplomats in at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, doubt the transparency of South Korea's reporting, noting the government had taken around six months to acknowledge the experiments after being informed by the UN watchdog that it had found traces of plutonium in environmental samples taken during inspections last year.
The diplomats have said the level of enrichment achieved was close to weapons grade, but Seoul's top nuclear scientist, Mr Chang In-soon, said yesterday dismissed the claim as speculation.
North Korea, in its first comment on the development, said the uranium experiment was a "dangerous movement" that could trigger a nuclear arms race.