The Asianist

The blog DPRK Studies catches a possibly out-of-context quote on Yonhap (South Korean equivalent of the Associated Press) on Pakistan's link with North Korea's nuclear program:

From YONHAP, ‘Pakistani premier denies contact with N. Korea on nuclear weapons':

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday dismissed speculation that his country provided North Korea with nuclear materials to help it develop nuclear weapons. “We have had no contact whatsoever, directly or indirectly, with North Korea or any such [nuclear] issues,” Aziz said in a speech to South Korean and Pakistani diplomats. [emphasis added]

Considering that part of the U.S. case against North Korea having a clandestine uranium-based nuclear weapons program, which was in the news just yesterday, the quote above would make U.S. claims perhaps seem less credible. This is especially true for South Koreans not following what Pakistani officials say about the issue, and getting an earful of OhMyNews type propaganda on a daily basis. For them it might bolster NK’s public claims of innocence.

That is because the Pakistani PM is being quoted out of context...

The blog goes on to explain in depth that Pakistan's A. Q. Khan network did supply considerable amount of nuclear equipment to North Korea and that the Pakistani claim is that Pakistan no longer has a relationship with North Korea's nuclear program TODAY (I sure hope not, what with Pakistan being a crucial US ally in "the War against Terror").

So is this a case of merely lazy journalism? There is a greater dimension to errors of this sort:

Why is the YONHAP story a problem? I link this to the larger picture of U.S.-ROK relations and the public opinion of South Koreans about the U.S. In this case, it directly undermines the U.S. position regarding the North Korean uranium program.

Well said.

DPRK Studies also has a useful entry on North Korea's nuclear sites.