[워싱턴=AP/KNS뉴스통신) 한 핵문제 전문가는 6일 파키스탄 핵 개발의 아버지로 불리는 압둘 카디르 칸 박사가 북한이 1990년대 파키스탄으로부터 핵기술의 확보와 관련하여 파키스탄군 수뇌부에 현금 350만 달러를 건넨 것으로 보이는 서류를 미국의 전문가에게 준 것으로 AP통신에 제보했다.
칸 박사는 이 같은 주장을 뒷받침하기 위해 1998년 북한이 자신에게 보낸 공문을 공개한 것은 파키스탄 당국의 허가 없이 혼자서 은밀하게 핵 거래를 했다는 비난을 피하기 위한 것이라고 주장했다.
칸 박사가 공개한 서한에는 파키스탄 군 수뇌부가 칸 박사가 북한, 이란, 리비아에 핵무기 관련기술을 수출하고 있다는 사실을 알고 있는 것처럼 보인다.
이 주장이 사실이라면 현재 아프가니스탄과 파키스탄에서 과격단체들과 전쟁을 하면서 이견을 좁혀가고 있는 양국사이에 불신의 골이 깊어질 우려가 제기되고 있다.
그러나 뇌물을 받은 주체로 지목된 카라마트 전 참모총장은 칸 박사가 핵확산에 대한 자신의 책임을 회피하기 위해 편지를 조작해 거짓으로 꾸민 일이라며 뇌물 수수 사실을 부인했다.
공개된 서한의 진위는 확인되지 않고 있지만, 칸 박사가 파키스탄 군부의 지원 하에 북한에 핵 관련 기술을 수출한 가능성이 있는 것으로 추정되고 있다.
(사진제공=AP통신)
(영문기사 원문)
NKorea paid Pakistanis for nuclear tech
WASHINGTON (AP) — The founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program claims that in the late 1990s North Korean officials paid kickbacks to senior Pakistani military figures in ex change for critical weapons technology.
Abdul Qadeer Khan has given a United States-based expert documents that appear to show North Korea's government paid more than $3.5 million to two Pakistani military officials as part of the deal, the expert told The Associated Press Wednesday.
To back up his claim, Khan released what he said was a copy of a North Korean official's 1998 letter to him, written in English, that purports to describe the secret deal.
Khan gave the documents to Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an authority on Pakistan's weapons program. He did so because he has been accused by his government of running a covert nuclear smuggling operation without official knowledge or consent.
The letter, along with a statement by Khan describing the deal, suggests that at least some top-level Pakistani military officials knew early on about some of Khan's extensive sale of nuclear weapons technology to other countries, including North Korea, Iran and Libya.
If that's true, it could deepen the distrust between the United States and Pakistan, which are struggling to set aside their differences and cooperate in the battle against militant extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The significance of the revelation is in dispute. Henderson said the documents prove Khan's claims that his nuclear arms smuggling network had high-level support from the Pakistani government, but others say the letter bolsters the government's claims it didn't know what Khan was up to.
Jehangir Karamat, a former Pakistani military chief named as the recipient of the $3 million, said the letter was untrue. In an email to the Post from Lahore, Karamat said Khan, as part of his defense against allegations of personal responsibility for illicit nuclear proliferation, had tried "to shift blame on others."
The other official, retired Lt. Gen. Zulfiqar Khan, called the letter "a fabrication."
Khan has long denied claims that he was working behind his government's back in his covert nuclear technology sales to foreign governments.
김희광 기자 april4241@naver.com
