U.S. says North Korea gave Syria nuclear assistance

By Arshad Mohammed and Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday released photographs of what it said was a Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, in an effort to pressure Pyongyang to fully disclose its nuclear activities.

The reactor was destroyed by Israel in a September 6 air strike that was initially shrouded in secrecy out of what the Bush administration said was fear that public discussion could prompt Syria, which has long supported militant Palestinian groups, to retaliate.

"We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

"We have good reason to believe that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on September 6 of last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes," she said.

In detailed briefings to U.S. lawmakers and reporters, U.S. officials produced before-and-after aerial photographs of the suspected reactor in eastern Syria as well as detailed interior images that they said showed key parts of its components.

The United States did not give Israel any "green light" to strike the suspected nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said.

Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha denied the U.S. charge. "This is a fantasy," he told CNN after being briefed by the U.S. State Department on the U.S. intelligence.

"I hope the truth will be revealed to everybody," Moustapha said. "This will be a major embarrassment to the U.S. administration for a second time -- they lied about Iraqi WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) and they think they can do it again."

Washington's main justification for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion was that Iraq had stockpiles of WMDs. Such weapons have not been found.

"COVERT NUCLEAR REACTOR"

The White House statement, which did not mention Israel, said Syria had been building a "covert nuclear reactor" in its eastern desert that was capable of producing plutonium.

One of the photographs presented to lawmakers and reporters showed what U.S. intelligence officials described as a senior North Korean nuclear expert standing side by side with a key Syrian atomic official inside Syria.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials said the suspected reactor closely resembled the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea.

The U.S. charges come several months after North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, missed a December 31 deadline to make a declaration of its nuclear programs in a deal over its nuclear programs with the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and South Korea.

Under the deal North Korea promised to disclose all of its nuclear programs and, ultimately, to abandon them and any nuclear weapons it may have.