US: North Korea helped build reactor

The White House is today set to unveil a video it claims supports allegations that North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor.

The suspected reactor was destroyed by Israeli planes last September, in an attack reminiscent of Israel's 1981 raid on the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.

Little is still known about the raid seven months on, and today's evidence has been keenly anticipated. US media reports say the video images, believed to have been obtained via Israeli intelligence, show Korean faces among the workers at the Syrian plant.

Reports said the video also showed that the Syrian reactor core's design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods.

Following the Israeli attack, Syria kept relatively quiet for what was a serious incident – a bombing raid on its territory. It bulldozed the area and constructed a building on the exact location of the old one.

Damascus refused to allow international nuclear inspectors to visit the location, an act that fuelled suspicions that it had something to cover up.

The Bush administration is going public with the video at a sensitive time in negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear programme. Under a recent deal, Pyongyang said it would reveal full details of its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of US economic sanctions.