LEAD: Company raided over export of machinery for use in making nuke weapons+
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[July 31, 2008]

LEAD: Company raided over export of machinery for use in making nuke weapons+

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, July 31_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

Police on Thursday raided Horkos Corp., a machine tool maker in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, and a dozen other relevant locations on suspicion that the company exported machine tools convertible for use in the development of nuclear weapons without authorization of the trade minister, police said.



The Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Bureau and the Hiroshima prefectural police are investigating the possibility that the tools may have been exported to the Middle East or North Korea by way of South Korea, they said.

The tools -- technically called machining centers and priced at around several tens of million yen each -- are typically used in manufacturing automotive components and other devices but are also capable of producing components for centrifuge separation devices for enriching uranium.



They are listed as an export-controlled item by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in line with provisions of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.

A listed item requires approval for export by the minister. Horkos is suspected of falsely declaring more than one such machine tool as of lower caliber that does not require ministerial authorization for exports. The tools are suspected of having been exported to South Korea by ship in 2004.

The buyer is a general company that is not involved in weapons development but the machine tools may have been resold, the police said.

In questioning by the Metropolitan Police Department, Horkos officials in charge of machining center exports have admitted that they were aware that unauthorized exports were being made, the police said.

According to the company's website, Horkos was set up in 1940 and generated 21 billion yen in sales in the year ended September 2007 with 665 employees.

Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.

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