Did Bhutto give nuclear technology to North Korea?

Thanks for posting this slenderdog,

Something does not add up here.  Shyam Bhatia is a well, respected journalist in the west but..... Dr. A Q Khan is the mastermind behind the Pakistan nuclear program and his motivation was a mixture of politics and making a personal fortune from selling nuclear technology. What was Bhutto's motivation? Bhatia does not tell us and I cannot think of one either. In fact the article makes no mention of Khan. That's a bit odd for an investigative journalist. The proof, for a journalist, would be to establish a link between the two. He does not. What is more the style of this gossipy "kiss and tell" article does not fit with the writing style of this first class journalist.

So I am sorry but I think this article has a credibility issue. I think you did the right thing to post this article but I am not convinced any of it is true. 

MEOW!

slenderdog,

Here is a video link from Washington where Benizar Bhutto is asked for her views on AQ Khan. She is, publically, very critical of Khan and so contradicts what is suggested in this article - which only adds to my doubts that Shyam Bhatia wrote this piece.  

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pakistanpolicy

Anglo American,

Thanks for this.  I posted this since it was such a sensational claim, hoping someone could elucidate.  I am not familiar with Bhatia so I can't comment on the credibility of the article beyond the fact that it is sensational and would be very difficult to corroborate.  The article does state that Bhutto's motive was to acquire missile technology from the Koreans, which is plausible, not to say credible.  Her comments on Khan may be read as you suggest, or may be read as the denial of a politician who knows more than she is revealing.  Altogether I am skeptical of the claim, but I don't reject it.                

This story is confirmed by the globalsecurity.org page on the AQ Khan - Pakistani nuclear program's contacts with the North Koreans:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/khan-dprk.htm

"A.Q. Khan’s Network

A.Q. Khan’s network is reported to have played a significant role in
North Korea’s nuclear program, providing it with an alternative way of
manufacturing nuclear fuel, after it agreed under the 1994 Agreed
Framework to freeze its reactors and reprocessing facilities. In all,
A.Q. Khan's network provided North Korea with both centrifuge designs
and a small number of actual, complete centrifuges, in addition to a
list of components needed to manufacture additional ones.

It is also in 1994 that then Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto traveled to North Korea reportedly at the request of the
then-army chief of staff, Gen. Abudl Waheed. Buttho claimed that
Pakistan paid for North Korean assistance, returning, at Khan’s
insistence and desire for nuclear-capable long range missiles, from a
trip to Pyongyang with computer
disks containing specifications for missiles. Somome sources are,
however, reportedly claimed that lack of money on Pakistan’s part made
trading easier.

A few months later, A.Q. Khan made the first of what would be
about 13 trips to North Korea, as part of a Pakistani delegation to
Pyongyang, composed of both scientists and military officers. At that
time Musharraf was Waheed’s director general for military operations.
While there, he is said to have helped N. Korea with the design and
equipping of facilities focused on the enrichment of uranium in
exchange for North Korean assistance in the area of missile technology.
Khan confessed to helping North Korea with the knowledge and approval
of senior military commanders, among which two army chiefs and
Musharraff. Waheed was subsequently replaced in January 1996 by Gen.
Karamat who secretely travelled to North Korea in December 1997."

It's unclear what their reference was for this report (about 300 separate references are listed for the article in general, but no particular one is footnoted for the Bhutto trip to NK with the CD-ROMs data), but John Pike's not generally in the business of printing crap. 

At the very least, this report implies a separate source for the Bhutto CD-ROM data smuggling to North Korea allegations from the late Ms.Bhutto's friend's book.