North Korea has more secret nuclear sites - UN report

The report relies on evidence from US scientist Siegfried Hecker who visited a secret site in November last year.

He told the UN's panel of experts that the centrifuges he saw probably came from other hidden facilities, say reports quoting unnamed diplomats.

The panel's report, which has not yet been published, was handed to the Security Council last week.

North Korean officials showed Mr Hecker, from Stanford University, an apparently fully functional uranium enrichment plant at the Yongbyon complex in November.

The UN's panel of experts, which assesses the sanctions regime against Pyongyang, was asked to produce the report after Mr Hecker briefed the Security Council on his visit.

Diplomats told Bloomberg that their report concluded that centrifuges and other equipment at the Yongbyon reactor had previously operated at one or more secret locations.

According to the diplomats - who were not identified because the report has not yet been published - Mr Hecker told the panel it was unlikely that the North could have manufactured all of the equipment; Kazinform cites BBC News.

See www.bbc.co.uk for full story.