Pyongyang's nuclear 'father' an enigma

SEOUL: The scientists who have propelled North Korea's decades-long nuclear program are, like much else in the tightly controlled communist country, shrouded in a deep veil of secrecy.

There's no AQKhan, said Bertil Lintner, author of a book on North Korea's leadership, of the Pakistani scientist credited with leading his nation's entry to the nuclear club, who admitted proliferating technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.
With Pakistan and other countries, they've got 'Mr Bomb', said Peter Beck, Seoul-based North Korea analyst for the conflict resolution think tank International Crisis Group.

It's possible at some point this person will be identified, but it's only if the North wants (the world) to know.
Experts generally agree that in North Korea scientific stars have been largely subsumed into a collective effort under draconian supervision. In any case, all major advances are attributed to leader Kim Jong-il or his late father, founding ruler Kim Il-sung.

Still, among North Korean scientists there are a handful who truly have been pivotal, and without their drive and experience, their nuclear program would not have proceeded to the point where it is today , said Joseph Bermudez, a senior analyst at Jane's Information Group.
The origins of the North's nuclear quest, culminating in its announcement that it had carried out an underground test explosion on October 9, can be traced to the end of World War II.
That brought the liberation of the Korean peninsula from decades of Japanese rule, and its split into capitalist and communist camps in the North and South.

Some of the scientists credited with helping lay the foundation for a nuclear program after 1945, such as To Sang-rok and Lee Sung-ki, studied at Japanese universities during the colonial period. Both are dead.
Another influential figure, Seo Sang-guk, studied in the 1950s with many North Korean scientists in the Soviet Union, which played a big role in the country's nuclear development.

Seo is thought to live in the North.
He is viewed as a so-called genius, Hwang Jang-yop, who held a key position in the North's ruling Workers Party and is the highest-ranking official to defect from the country, told journalists.
The most enigmatic purported North Korean nuclear scientist may be Kyong Won-ha.

The Australian reported in April 2003 that he was among key North Korean nuclear specialists who defected to the West, calling him the father of North Korea's nuclear program .