GENEVA, Sept 10 (AFP) - The United States will treat South Korea in the same way as any other country that conducts secret nuclear research if such a case is made by the UN atomic agency, the top US arms official said on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should outline its knowledge of covert atomic programmes in South Korea at a top meeting in Vienna next week and compile a written report possibly by the end of November, said John Bolton, US Under Secretary of State for arms control and international security.
Washington would decide what action to take once all the facts were on the table, he told a news conference in Geneva, after a regular meeting with his counterparts from the other Group of Eight industrialised countries.
"We will not allow a double standard in terms of how we treat violations of safeguard agreements," Bolton said, referring to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which seeks to prevent the use of nuclear technology for military purposes.
"There are a variety of steps we might take," he said.
Seoul had cooperated with IAEA officials and it had also informed the United States about the issue a few weeks ago, according to the senior US envoy.
But he added, "the United States will proceed to its decision on how to treat this matter considering the facts the IAEA brings to us and with no double standard at all."
South Korea, a close ally to the United States unlike other countries with suspected nuclear weapons ambitions such as Iran and North Korea, admitted on Thursday that its scientists had extracted a small amount of plutonium, a key ingredient for making nuclear bombs, in secret research in the early 1980s.
The admission came just a week after South Korea said its scientists had conducted unauthorised experiments to enrich uranium, which is also used to build atomic weapons.
"Our understanding is that next week at the IAEA there will be a brief, probably verbal, report on what the IAEA has learned about at least the South Korean experiment enrichment," said Bolton.
"It is the general expectation ... that the IAEA should continue its investigation and give a formal written report to the board of governors at the November meeting," he said, adding that this was not a definite deadline.
The 35-nation board of governors to the IAEA, meeting in Vienna from Monday, is due to gather again at the end of November.