NTI: Country Overviews: North Korea: Nuclear Import/Export

Nuclear Imports

Year/Date	Exporter	Item(s)	Remarks
1947-50	USSR	Uranium and monazite mining expertise
1950s	USSR	Education in nuclear physics	Ch’oe Hak Kŭn, a future minister of Atomic Energy and Industry, studies in the USSR.
1952	China	Nuclear expertise	Suspected; China sends specialists to North Korea to “collect radioactive material.”
1956-1990s	USSR	Education and training	Over 300 North Korean scientists study nuclear physics in the USSR.
January 1958	USSR	Nuclear expertise	The USSR helps establish the “Atomic Weapons Training Center” in or near Kilchu-kun, North Hamgyŏng Province.
1960s	USSR	Hot cells
1960s	USSR	IRT-2000 Research Reactor
1960s-early 1970s	USSR	Training in plutonium reprocessing techniques
1964	China	Technical assistance in surveying uranium deposits
1964	USSR	Nuclear expertise	USSR assists in the establishment of the Nuclear Research Complex in Yŏngbyŏn-kun.
May-June 1965	USSR	0.1MW critical assembly
Mid-1960s	Austria and France	Nuclear equipment	Reported by defector Ko Yŏng Hwan in 1991.
Late 1960s	USSR	25 Mev Betatron
1968	USSR	0.1MW critical assembly
Early 1970s	USSR	Technical assistance in constructing an isotope processing facility
July 1972	Canada	Nuclear expertise	Dr. Kim Kyŏng Ha, “a famous atomic bomb specialist,” goes to North Korea from Canada, allegedly to work on nuclear weapons.
1974	China	Nuclear training/expertise
Mid 1970s	IAEA	Nuclear reactor/equipment data	Ch’oe Hak Kŭn, representative to the IAEA, copies information from IAEA library.
Mid 1970s-1989	Romania	Unspecified nuclear assistance	Probably limited assistance because Romania had limited experience and was pursuing Canadian CANDU technology.
1976	France	Two IRIS-50 computers
March 1977	China	Nuclear expertise
1980s	West Germany via Pakistan	Uranium enrichment technology	Suspected
1980s	West Germany via India or Pakistan	Two electron beam furnaces and two “laboratory furnaces”	Suspected
1983	Russia	ICBMs
1986-87	West Germany	US-origin zirconium	Suspected
1987	West Germany via East Germany	Small annealing furnace	Suspected
1988-89	Japan and Europe	Gas centrifuge technology	Suspected
1989	West Germany	Technical assistance	One or two German technicians are reportedly in North Korea in 1989.
1989	IAEA	Assistance in locating uranium deposits
1989-91	USSR	Nuclear expertise and reactor designs
1990	West Germany	Technical assistance	An “official” from the German firm Leybold is reportedly in North Korea in 1990.
1990s-2002	Pakistan	Uranium enrichment technology	Suspected
1990s	Iran	Unspecified nuclear assistance	Suspected
1991	USSR	Nuclear expertise
Early 1990s	USSR	Technical assistance in constructing a nuclear cyclotron
July 1992	Russia and Ukraine	Nuclear expertise	North Korean officials observe nuclear explosions in order to test indigenously produced explosion monitoring equipment.
October 1992	Russia	Nuclear expertise	Prevented; Over 60 Russian nuclear specialists are stopped at the Sheremetyevo-2 Airport near Moscow before departing to North Korea.
December 1992-March 1993	Unknown	Nuclear equipment
8 December 1992	Russia	Nuclear expertise	Prevented; Special Forces arrest 36 “senior weapons scientists” as they attempt to travel to North Korea.
1994	Kazakhstan; unspecified central Asian countries	Uranium-235, plutonium-239, osmium-187, cesium-137, strontium, and 70-80 documents on nuclear technologies	Suspected
Mid-August 1994	German citizen	Up to 2.5mg of plutonium	Prevented; it is unclear whether North Korea is the intended importer or exporter of the plutonium
Late 1990s	Pakistan	Gas centrifuges	Suspected
Late 1990s	Democratic Republic of Congo	Uranium ore	Suspected
Mid-1999	Japan	Two frequency converters (uranium enrichment technology)	Delivery is unconfirmed.
Late 1999	Russia	Radioactive material traveling by train	Prevented; in October 1999, Russian authorities detain several trains because of detected amounts of radiation. The trains regularly traveled from Russia to Nasŏn, North Korea.
2001	Russia	Nuclear expertise (20 Russian nuclear scientists)
2001	Kazakhstan	32kg of highly enriched uranium	Suspected
December 2002	Chinese firms	20 tons of tributyl phosphate (TBP)	On 9 December, the Washington Times reported that US intelligence has discovered that North Korean government agents had approached several Chinese companies to acquire TBP, but subsequent reports on 17 and 20 December started that North Korea had actually received 20 tons of TBT.
July 2002	Pakistan	Nuclear technology	Suspected
July 2003	Japan (via Taiwan)	Oil-diffusion pump, oil-rotary pump	A July 2007 IAEA inspection of North Korean nuclear facilities, including the Yongbyon complex, confirms the presence of this Japan-origin equipment. Details of the export from Japan are subsequently uncovered during a June 2008 police raid in Sagamihara.
2004-2006	Japan	Machining centers	Suspected (identified during a police raid in Hiroshima). Machining centers are dual-use machine tools that can be applied to the component-level manufacturing of uranium enrichment centrifuges.
2007	Taiwan	Industrial filtering device	Alleged to have occurred in early 2007, based on an investigation of a Taiwanese import-export firm by Taiwan's Justice Ministry. According to the Justice Ministry's Investigation Bureau, the device may have applications suitable for the extraction of plutonium. Additionally, the Bureau indicates that there is evidence that North Koreans received operational and maintenance training in Taiwan.

Complete citations and further details are available in the missile chronology within this country profile. This table includes all types of reported transactions: complete weapon systems, components and special materials, production technologies and information, training and human resources, etc.

Sources:
[1] Agence France Presse
[2] Chelyabinski Rabochij
[3] Christian Science Monitor
[4] Deutsche Presse-Agentur
[5] Chugan Chosun
[6] Donga Ilbo
[7] Hankook Ilbo
[8] Hoguk
[9] Jane’s Defense Weekly
[10] Jane’s Intelligence Review
[11] Jerusalem Post
[12] Joongang Ilbo
[13] KBS Radio; KBS Television
[14] Korea Herald
[15] Korean Central News Agency
[16] Kukmin Ilbo
[17] Kyodo News Service
[18] Kyunghyang Shinmun
[19] Mainichi Daily News
[20] Moscow TV 6
[21] New York Times
[22] Michael J. Mazarr, North Korea and the Bomb
[23] James Clay Moltz and Alexandre Y. Mansourov, editors, The North Korean Nuclear Program: Security, Strategy, and New Perspectives from Russia
[24] Nuclear Engineering International
[25] Nuclear Fuel
[26] Nucleonics Week
[27] Outlook India.com
[28] Chang Chun Ik, Pukhan Haek-Missile Chŏnjaeng
[29] Lee Chae Sŭng, Pukhan’ŭl Umjig’i’nŭn Technocrat
[30] Segye Ilbo
[31] Shindonga
[32] South China Morning Post
[33] Sunday Times
[34] Times (London)
[35] TCNC Newsletter
[36] United Press International
[37] Wall Street Journal
[38] Washington Post
[39] Washington Times
[40] Yomiuri Shimbun
[41] Yonhap News Agency
[42] Masako Toki and Stephanie Lieggi, "Japan's Struggle to Limit Dual-Use Exports," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 5 September 2008.
[43] Toshinao Ishii, "Taiwan Firm Sold DPRK Precision Equipment," 27 November 2007, The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), www.lexis-nexis.com.
[44] Debby Wu, "Taiwan Investigats Company for Allegedly Selling Nuclear-Related Equipment to North Korea," 27 November 2007, The Associated Press, www.lexis-nexis.com.


	Updated February 2010

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	The Second NPT PrepCom for the 2005 Review Conference
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	CRS Report for Congress: North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons: How Soon an Arsenal?
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	NBR: North Korea's Nuclear Weapons (2006)
	FAS: Nuclear Weapons Program (2006)
	The North Korean Plutonium Stock Mid-2006
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This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2010 by MIIS.

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