Pakistan Says North Korea Nuclear Ties 'Closed Chapter'

29 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz today said his country has given South Korea all the information it has about suspected exchanges of nuclear technology with North Korea and considers the issue "a closed chapter."

Aziz, who is in Seoul, made the statement one month after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf confirmed speculation that Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, had provided some centrifuges and centrifuge designs to North Korea.

Musharraf has insisted his government did not authorize or know about Khan's actions. Khan, considered a hero in Pakistan, has been pardoned but under house arrest since February 2004.

South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States have been trying for more than two years to convince North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs.

(Reuters/AP)