North Korea says it is pursuing uranium bomb.
Following nearly seven years of adamant denials, North Korea announced this month that it can enrich uranium — a simpler method of building nuclear weapons than reprocessing plutonium, according to Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the Federation of American Scientists. For the past decade, efforts by the U.S. and others have focused primarily on blocking Pyongyang's production of plutonium. Oelrich told Global Security Newswire that reports that while the advancement level of the North's uranium-enrichment program is not known, he guessed it is probably "in its infancy." However, Seoul-based analyst Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group speculated that the North might be able to make quick progress toward a uranium bomb with help from Iran.