London, September 6 (BBC Urdu): Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Monday that North Korea’s nuclear technology is much better than Pakistan’s and has always been so.
In a telephonic interview with BBC Urdu, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program ruled out any help from Islamabad to Pyongyang in this regard. While Pakistani scientists were in touch with their North Korean counterparts, Pakistan did not contribute to the North Korean nuclear program as the North Koreans were already more advanced.
North Korea was self-reliant in the nuclear field because of its highly qualified group of scientists, he said.
Dr Qadeer revealed he was in North Korea twice under a missile program, where he found that they had much better quality personnel than Pakistan.
“Their scientists are highly capable, and most of them have studied in Russia.”
Russia and China would never leave North Korea alone, he claimed, recalling the two countries’ support for Vietnam during its 20-year war with the United States.
When asked if North Korea got any assistance from Pakistan’s nuclear program, Dr Qadeer completely rejected the notion.
“It’s out of the question. Their overall technology is better than ours. We have the old and conventional technology. We never saw their facilities not ever discussed the program,” he insisted.
However, he said Pakistan’s association with North Korea for the missile program was common knowledge.
“In fact, the Pakistani government itself announced that we were in contact with North Korea.”
Pyongyang successfully tested a modern hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile on September 3.
According to Dr Qadeer, North Korea’s hydrogen bomb has the capacity to destroy any city within minutes.
“Hydrogen bombs are much more powerful than atom bombs. For instance, an atom bomb may destroy the area in the radius of 1 to 2 kilometres, but a hydrogen bomb can devastate an entire city,” he said.
(The featured image at the top shows Dr.Abdul Qadeer Khan)
