Iraq paid N. Korea to deliver missiles

Saddam Hussein’s government paid North Korea $10 million for medium-range Nodong missile technology in the months before the Iraq war, but never received any goods because of U.S. pressure, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq said yesterday.

David Kay, who is leading the Iraq Survey Group, said there is “a lot of evidence” Iraq was rebuilding its banned missile program, which it actively hid from U.N. weapons inspectors.

Mr. Kay, in a telephone interview with reporters, also said the discovery that Iraq’s intelligence service had built at least a dozen clandestine weapons laboratories was one of the surprises of the three-month search for weapons of mass destruction and missile programs that he led.

“The other surprise is the extent to which the Iraqis had moved ahead in the missile area,” Mr. Kay said, noting that Iraq had three missile programs that violated U.N. sanctions against building missiles with ranges greater than 93 miles.

He said European countries were involved in Iraq’s three covert missile programs, which included a copy of the 620-mile-range Nodong missile.

“I can’t name them right now,” he said.

Mr. Kay also admitted that he was surprised not to have found stocks of hidden chemical, biological and nuclear-related weapons of mass destruction.

“I think all of us who entered Iraq expected the job of actually discovering deployed weapons to be easier than it has turned out to be,” he said.

On North Korea, Mr. Kay said the Iraqis launched negotiations for North Korean missile assistance in 1999 and the cooperation continued through 2002. It was the first time U.S. officials had disclosed a link between Iraq’s missile program and North Korea.

Both Iraq under Saddam and North Korea, along with Iran, were labeled as an international “axis of evil” by President Bush.

Mr. Bush yesterday said the evidence in the interim report Mr. Kay delivered to Congress this week on the first three months of the search for weapons showed Saddam was “a threat, a serious danger.”

“The report states that Saddam Hussein’s regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum, sophisticated concealment efforts, and advanced design work on prohibited longer-range missiles,” Mr. Bush said on the South Lawn of the White House.

Mr. Bush said the preliminary findings “already make clear that Saddam Hussein actively deceived the international community, that Saddam Hussein was in clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 and that Saddam Hussein was a danger to the world.”

Critics, including Democrats on Capitol Hill who have heard the classified briefings Mr. Kay gave this week, said the fact no weapons of mass destruction have been found should cause the administration to change its rhetoric.

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