South Korea has admitted to the UN atomic watchdog that government scientists used lasers to enrich a small amount of uranium to a level one Western diplomat said Thursday was close to what could fuel an atomic bomb.

Asked how highly enriched the uranium produced by the Korean scientists was, a Vienna-based diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters it was below but "very close" to the threshold for bomb-grade uranium.

"It was well beyond the level that would be needed for a civilian program," the diplomat said. "The government says that its program is peaceful and the IAEA is not making any judgments on that issue."

The IAEA said in a statement that Seoul told the agency "these activities were carried out without the government's knowledge at a nuclear site in Korea in 2000."

At the same time, the diplomat said the scientists were government employees working at a government-run facility.

South Korea has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the IAEA's Additional Protocol, which gives inspectors the right to conduct more intrusive, short-notice visits to nuclear sites than normal NPT safeguards permit.

"With the Additional Protocol in force, it would have been difficult for Korea to keep this a secret," the diplomat said.

(China Daily via Agencies September 3, 2004)