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 The U.S. plans to double-check the plutonium figures contained in a long-delayed accounting of North Korea's nuclear past, which the nation handed over Thursday.
A senior U.S. official says the paperwork contains detailed data on the amount of plutonium produced during each of several rounds of production at a now-shuttered plutonium reactor. It is expected to total about 37 kilograms of plutonium
-- enough to make about a half-dozen bombs.
North Korea stopped making plutonium and has begun disabling its nuclear facilities so they cannot be quickly restarted, but it still has its stockpile of radioactive material for now.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door agreements with the North Koreans. The official says that the U.S. will check North Korea's math through a combination of documents, interviews and visits to the reactor.
In the meantime, China is expected to distribute the new documentation Friday to the other nations negotiating with North Korea. A meeting of nuclear negotiators could follow on Monday.
The paperwork handed in on Thursday totals about 60 pages. It covers nuclear production dating back to 1986. It does not contain detailed information about North Korea's separate uranium production program or what North Korea may have done to help Syria build a reactor.
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 The United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia have been negotiating with North Korea to give up its nuclear program. North Korea missed an end-of-2007 deadline to turn over a full inventory of its programs and a description of its spread of nuclear technology to others.
The paperwork is a linchpin for the nuclear disarmament deal the North has worked out over three years. During that time, the talks stopped and started several times, and the North exploded a test nuclear device.
[Associated
Press; By ANNE GEARAN]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
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