1997: US Detects North Korean Interest in Uranium Enrichment, Links to A. Q. Khan Network

The US begins to detect that North Korea is interested in obtaining uranium enrichment technology, so that it can acquire the capacity to build a uranium bomb. North Korea’s plutonium activities were frozen in 1994, following an international agreement. Robert Gallucci, a special envoy working for President Clinton, will say he is not surprised by this and expected the North Koreans to try this route after freezing their plutonium activities. He will say: “[B]y 1997 we began to focus on information about enrichment shopping by the North Koreans. [Pakistani scientist A. Q.] Khan was an exceptionally busy person. And believe me, we knew the difference between missile deals and enrichment parts as well as the generals did in Pakistan. It was parts for gas centrifuges that Pak was trading and the North Koreans were buying, simple as that. We were on to them even though it was not yet a large-scale operation. But the CIA always said, ‘let it run.’” [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 280]