North Korean Nuclear Scientist Dies At 91

Li Sung Li, a scientist known as the father of North Korea’s nuclear energy program, has died following a long illness, the North’s official radio reported today. He was 91.

Li is known to have pioneered North Korea’s nuclear energy development. It is unknown whether he played any part in the communist country’s alleged nuclear weapons program, for which North Korea used mainly Soviet technology.

Under a 1994 agreement with the United States, the country has frozen its suspected nuclear weapons program in exchange for two Western-made light-water reactors which produce far less weapons-grade plutonium.

North Korea also was promised some economic and diplomatic benefits, including improved relations with the United States, with which it has no formal ties.