South Korea’s foreign minister Thursday expressed regret over allegations that his country is hiding its nuclear ambitions. Ban Ki-moon said he was confident that planned investigations by a U.N. nuclear watchdog would prove South Korea’s nuclear experiments two decades ago were not related to weapons development. “It is regrettable that some section of the international community is raising suspicions on the transparency of our peaceful nuclear power activities without any basis in truth,” Ban told a press briefing. South Korea recently acknowledged it conducted a plutonium-based nuclear experiment 20 years ago. The admission came shortly after it said it conducted a uranium-enrichment experiment four years ago. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier this week that Seoul’s failure to report the unauthorized nuclear experiments was a matter of “serious concern.” Ban reiterated that those experiments were not to develop weapons. “We are confident that the investigations by the IAEA will prove that our government is committed to nuclear non-proliferation,” Ban said. © Copyright 2004 by United Press International

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