Nuclear claim 'provocative'

America's special envoy to North Korea has described Pyongyang’s claim to have secretly built a new uranium enrichment facility as provocative and disappointing but not a crisis or a surprise.

Stephen Bosworth’s comments came after a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan.

His trip followed a report by an American nuclear scientist that North Korea is running 2,000 recently completed centrifuges and claims to be producing low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor.

Mr Bosworth said the announcement was “disappointing” and “another in a series of provocative moves” but both he and Mr Kim played down the revelation.

He said Washington has “been watching and analysing” North Korea’s “aspirations to produce enriched uranium for some time”.