North Korea might feel emboldened by reports that China, a traditional ally of Pyongyang, has not accepted the US contention that the North has a uranium program. However, China wants the Korean Peninsula to be free of nuclear weapons and could pressure the North to curtail its belligerence.
Some security analysts believe the mystery will put pressure on the US to be more explicit about what it knows.
"Unless the US introduces a high-level defector with certain knowledge of the North Korean [uranium program] locations, or can send the IAEA or other inspectors to the right place, US intelligence credibility will not be reinforced," said Larry Wortzel, a former US military attache in Beijing and now an analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
North Korea expelled inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, from frozen nuclear facilities at Yongbyon after US officials alleged that the North admitted it had a uranium-based program in late 2002.
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