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Iran: CIA Says Khatami Not in Control of Nuclear Program: Six months after Iran elected a moderate cleric as president, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has no evidence that Sayed Khatami has stepped in to halt clandestine nuclear weapons-related development programs, regardless of overtures by Iran to build a bridge to the U.S. in recent weeks, and Khatami's own claims on television that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. North Korea: Seoul Cutting Back on Reactor Project Financing: South Korea has told both the U.S. and Japan it will not pay for most of the cost of the U.S.-brokered plan to build two nuclear reactors at Simpo in North Korea in exchange for a halt to the North's nuclear weapons development project, likely seriously delaying reactor construction. Despite recent statements by South Korean president-elect Kim Dae-Jung that he will support the project, Kim's own advisors now say the economic crisis precludes heavy financing for the reactors. The South's financing problems have re-raised criticism that the project is not meant to build reactors in the North but to to engage Pyongyang in a regional dialogue. South Korea: Economic Crisis to Delay Nuclear Program: Seoul's program to rapidly expand its nuclear power capacity will be delayed substantially by the ongoing economic crisis. Roughly $8 billion in new contracts to vendors in Canada and the U.S. are now indefinitely shelved, and future contract will depend on ongoing talks between the Korean government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which aims to cut back on infrastructure investment in Korea's energy sector.
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