#14 - JRL 7027
Russian Intelligence Denies Working With CIA On N Korea
January 31, 2003
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

MOSCOW (AP)--Russia's foreign intelligence service denied Tuesday that it had cooperated with the CIA on monitoring North Korea's alleged nuclear program.

The press service of the intelligence service known by the Russian acronym SVR said that a report in The New York Times about an alleged deal between the two intelligence agencies "does not correspond to reality."

The New York Times reported on Monday that sometime in the early 1990s, SVR agents had installed secret nuclear detection equipment inside the Russian Embassy in the North Korean capital Pyongyang at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency. The equipment was designed to pick up emissions of the isotope krypton, which would signal that North Korea had resumed plutonium reprocessing at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the paper said.

"Some forces in the United States have deliberately fabricated this publication at a time when Russia is making intense efforts to help defuse the tension around North Korea's nuclear program," the SVR press service said in a statement.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov spent three days discussing ways out of the crisis with officials in Pyongyang. He traveled to Beijing on Tuesday and is expected to report the results of his talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week.