Northern Exposure

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The U.S. has recently acquired a new asset in its diplomatic battle with North Korea over nuclear weapons. In what appears to be a major intelligence coup, the CIA last month recruited a scientist who worked on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, two U.S. officials and a foreign government source tell TIME. The scientist (who is not from the North and whose identity TIME was asked to withhold for the sake of his family's safety) has been relocated to the U.S. and has provided valuable information on the "location, degree of development in capabilities, where they are, and how far along they are in developing multiple weapons capability," a U.S. official said. Washington has largely been in the dark about North Korea's nuclear prowess, especially since the country ejected international weapons inspectors in December and withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in January. The CIA—whose spokesperson declined to comment for this story—earlier concluded that North Korea had built at least two nuclear devices. But information from the scientist has helped confirm that the program is much further along than that, intelligence that could give the U.S. an edge in future talks with the North. "It's one thing to make one or two (devices)," said the U.S. official. "It's another thing to have a process in place to make hundreds. They're on their way to be able to make hundreds within the next couple of years."

The scientist wasn't the only one ratting out Kim Jong Il last week. Two North Korean defectors, wearing hoods to protect their identity, appeared before a U.S. Senate subcommittee and described how the dictator bankrolls his weapons programs by making and exporting narcotics. One of the defectors, who said he was a high-ranking government official for more than 15 years before sneaking out of the country in 1998, said the cash-strapped government began developing poppy plantations in the late 1980s; in 1997, all collective farms were ordered to devote at least 25 acres to the cultivation of opium, which is processed in state factories. "This is all done under the direct control and strict supervision of the central government," he said.