AGL 40.39 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (0.98%)
AIRLINK 127.90 Increased By ▲ 0.86 (0.68%)
BOP 6.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.45%)
CNERGY 4.51 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.29%)
DFML 41.57 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.31%)
DGKC 86.88 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.03%)
FCCL 32.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.84%)
FFBL 64.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.14%)
FFL 10.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.07%)
HUBC 110.20 Increased By ▲ 0.63 (0.57%)
HUMNL 14.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.2%)
KEL 5.14 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.78%)
KOSM 7.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-3.22%)
MLCF 41.46 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.19%)
NBP 59.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.85 (-1.41%)
OGDC 195.30 Increased By ▲ 5.20 (2.74%)
PAEL 28.67 Increased By ▲ 0.84 (3.02%)
PIBTL 7.83 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PPL 151.75 Increased By ▲ 1.69 (1.13%)
PRL 26.61 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-1%)
PTC 16.14 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.44%)
SEARL 78.50 Decreased By ▼ -7.50 (-8.72%)
TELE 7.42 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.76%)
TOMCL 35.37 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.11%)
TPLP 8.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-1.48%)
TREET 16.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.67%)
TRG 52.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.69 (-1.29%)
UNITY 26.75 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (2.26%)
WTL 1.26 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,950 Increased By 66 (0.67%)
BR30 30,921 Increased By 321.3 (1.05%)
KSE100 93,864 Increased By 508.5 (0.54%)
KSE30 29,107 Increased By 176.5 (0.61%)

Intelligence officials and nuclear experts say Iran and North Korea have both made "significant progress" developing nuclear weapons programmes in the past year, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
US officials want to step up covert actions to stall Iran's alleged nuclear arms efforts, "in a tacit acknowledgement that the diplomatic initiatives with European and Asian allies have failed to curtail the programmes," the daily said.
Meanwhile "North Korea now probably has enough weapons-grade plutonium to test a weapon in the future," despite toughened sanctions and several rounds of six-nation talks aimed at curtailing such efforts, the Times said.
The assessment comes from a new classified intelligence report, described to the Times by people who read it, which "appears to have been written far more cautiously than the National Intelligence Estimate that erroneously described advanced weapons programmes in Iraq."
North Korea is thought to have "completely reprocessed" all of its weapons-grade plutonium, according to non-proliferation expert Gary Samore.
"They had a huge window of opportunity when we were invading Iraq, and they appear to have made maximum use of it," he told the Times.
Furthermore, both the Iranian and North Korean weapons programmes are increasingly self-sufficient thanks to aid they received from Pakistani scientists, the daily said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004

Comments

Comments are closed.