Pakistan denies receiving bribe from N Korea for N-technology

ISLAMABAD: Former army chief General Jehangir Karamat strongly denied on Thursday a report that he took $3 million in cash in exchange for helping smuggle nuclear technology to North Korea in the late 1990s, while the Foreign Office called the story "preposterous."

The Washington Post claimed on Wednesday that Abdul Qadeer Khan, had released a copy of a letter from a North Korean official dated 1998 detailing a $3 million payment to Pakistan's then-chief of army staff, General Jehangir Karamat.

"I was not in the loop for any kind of influence and I would have to be mad to sanction transfer of technology and for Dr Khan to listen to me," Karamat told Reuters in an email. The story, he said, is "totally false."

In addition to the payment to Karamat, the letter alleges former lieutenant general, Zulfiqar Khan, was given a half-million dollars and some jewellery. He also denied the accusation.

"I have not read the story," Khan told Reuters, "but of course it is wrong."

The Pakistan Army declined to comment. But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told reporters at a weekly press briefing that "such stories have a habit of recurring and my only comment is that this is totally baseless and preposterous."

Despite Pakistani protests, Western intelligence officials said they believed the letter was authentic, the Post claimed.

It appears to be signed by North Korean Workers Party Secretary Jon Byong, the newspaper claimed, and other details match classified information previously unrevealed to the public.

In exchange for the money, generals Karamat and Khan were to help Khan give documents on a nuclear program to North Korea, the Post alleged.

Copyright Reuters, 2011