WASHINGTON, July 7: The founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has alleged that the North Korean government bribed the country’s top military officers to obtain access to sensitive nuclear technology in the late 1990s, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Dr Khan made available documents that he said supported his claim that he had transferred more than $3 million in payments by North Korea to senior military officers, the newspaper said on its website.

He claimed that the military later approved his sharing of technical know-how and equipment with North Korean scientists.

The scientist released what he said was a copy of a North Korean official’s 1998 letter to him, written in English, that purported to describe the secret deal, the newspaper said.

Some western intelligence officials and other experts said they thought the letter was authentic.

Pakistani officials termed the letter fake.

The newspaper said the assertions by Dr Khan and the details in the letter could not be independently verified.

The letter was dated July 15, 1998, and marked ‘Secret,’ it said. The “3 millions dollars have already been paid” to one Pakistani military officer and “half a million dollars” and some jewellery had been given to a second officer, the letter said. It carries the apparent signature of North Korean Workers Party’s Secretary Jon Byong Ho.

“Please give the agreed documents, components, etc. to a... (North Korean embassy official in Pakistan) to be flown back when our plane returns after delivery of missile components,” it said.

Former army chief Jehangir Karamat, named as the recipient of the $3 million, said the letter was untrue. In an email to the newspaper from Lahore, he said Dr Khan, as part of his defence against allegations of personal responsibility for illicit nuclear proliferation, had tried “to shift blame on others”.

In another email to Reuters, he said: “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.” He said the report was “totally false”.

The other officer, Lt-Gen (retd) Zulfiqar Khan, called the letter “a fabrication”.

“I have not read the story,” he told Reuters, “but of course it is wrong”.

Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua called the allegations “baseless” and said they frequently reappeared in the media.

“Such stories have a habit of recurring and my only comment is that this is totally baseless and preposterous,” she said at her weekly press briefing.

The army declined to comment.

The letter was provided to the Post by former British journalist Simon Henderson. The newspaper said it had verified that Mr Henderson had obtained it from Dr Khan.

Mr Henderson said he provided the letter to the Post because he lacked the resources to authenticate it himself.

In written statements to Mr Henderson, Dr Khan described having delivered the cash in a canvas bag and cartons, including one in which it was hidden under fruit.--Agencies