Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan has said his country was short of anti-aircraft missiles during the 1999 Kargil War,so General Pervez Musharraf sent him to North Korea to purchase 200 missiles. In an interview to Pakistani Urdu TV channel Aaj News its translation has been obtained by Secrecy News of the Federation of American Scientists Khan said: In 1999,Gen Musharraf sent me along with Gen Iftikhar,who was the then chief of Air Defence Command. We were fighting India at Kargil,and we were in dire need of anti-aircraft missiles. Musharraf said that we could purchase the missiles from North Korea. We went to North Korea and purchased 200 missiles from them. Khan claimed Pakistan was ready to test a nuclear bomb as early as 1984 since the US overlooked its clandestine programme due to Islamabads involvement in the American-led Afghan war against the Soviet Union. He also said that Sri Lankan Muslims based in Dubai were suppliers of nuclear material and equipment to Pakistan and to Iran and Libya. He said Pakistan was ready to test a nuclear weapon just six years after it first began to enrich uranium. It was 6 April 1978 when we achieved our first centrifugal enrichment of uranium. We had achieved 90 per cent (enrichment) by early 1983. I wrote a letter to Gen Zia on 10 December 1984,telling him that the weapon was ready and that we could detonate it on a notice of one week. But Zia ul-Haq decided against testing the bomb. We were allying with the United States in the Afghan war. The aid was coming. We asked Gen Zia and his team to go ahead with the test,but they said they could not conduct the test as it would have serious repercussions.They said the tests could be conducted any time later, said Khan. On Irans acquisition of nuclear technology,Khan said: Iranian officials would meet them (suppliers) in Dubai. We had told the Iranians that the suppliers were very reliable. Irans nuclear capability will neutralise Israels power.
