News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The reported daring Israeli air strike in northern Syrian in September targeted a factory that was making nuclear weapons with plutonium warheads supplied by North Korea, the Sunday Times of London reported. Previous reports indicated that that Syria was using the site to build a nuclear power plant, although initial reports mentioned the possibility of the assembly of nuclear warheads.

The Times quoted Professor Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University, who was one of the founders of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona, "I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely, a factory for assembling the bomb. I think the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] transferred to Syria weapons-grade plutonium in raw form, that is nuggets of easily transported metal in protective cans."

Israel has not commented on the reported aerial attack. Reports of North Korean assistance to Syria conflict with the Bush administration's diplomatic policies to appease the country.