TOKYO, June 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has imported about 150 tons of high-strength aluminum from an unidentified Russian exporter as part of its nuclear weapons program, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday, citing U.S. intelligence sources.
The amount of high-strength aluminum is enough to produce about 2,600 gas centrifuges used to enrich uranium, the report explained.
Identifying the U.S. sources simply as former ranking Washington officials and officials involved in the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, the Japanese paper said such moves by the North have further escalated the international standoff over its nuclear ambition.
Separately, Pyongyang is known to have obtained 20 centrifuges and their blueprints from Pakistan years ago. An American source was quoted by Asahi as saying North Korea was seeking to secure a total of 350 tons of high-strength aluminum to produce about 6,000 centrifuges.
Fears of a North Korean nuclear test have grown after the communist state halted the operation of a key nuclear reactor in April in an apparent attempt to harvest plutonium for nuclear weapons.
In early May, North Korea said it finished unloading about 8,000 plutonium-laced spent fuel rods from the suspended reactor at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, fueling suspicions about the North's nuclear ambitions. Up to three nuclear bombs worth of plutonium can be extracted from the rods, experts say.
The fuel used in nuclear warheads can come from either uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing. North Korea has pursued both tracks.
The six-nation talks, which involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, remain stalled since the third round last June. A fourth meeting, scheduled before the end of last September, did not take place due to a North Korean boycott.
North Korea Imports Key Nuclear Materials From Russia
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