Seoul (AFP) July 10, 2000 - Superpower intelligence agencies are stepping up their operations here in an effort to find out all they can about reclusive North Korea following last month's inter-Korean summit, a report said Monday.
The Korean-language JoongAng Ilbo said the United States, Japan, China and Russia had all bolstered their South Korean intelligence teams following the North-South summit in Pyongyang.
"Every movement of Kim Jong-il is top-class intelligence," an unnamed diplomatic source was quoted by the paper as saying.
"This kind of information is beyond comparison with those gathered through satellite or reconnaissance. The United States is reacting most sensitively."
The 90-minute limousine ride shared by South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and North Korean leader Kim had aroused the most interest, the paper reported.
Israeli intelligence had also boosted its activities on the peninsula, attempting to glean information about possible North Korean sales of weapons technology to other states, the paper reported.
While most enquiries have focused on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's mindset, other apparently banal facts have also been sought according to the paper.
Materials used for hotel bathrooms used by South Korean summit delegates were among facts sought, the JoongAng Ilbo revealed.
North and South Korea have remained technically at war since the bitter 1950-53 conflict which divided the peninsula.
No armistice was ever signed between the two sides and their border, the world's last Cold War frontier, remains one of the most heavily fortified in the world.
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