Posted on 12/06/2004 6:56:56 AM PST by dead
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is convinced North Korea has built four to six nuclear bombs out of the nuclear material the agency had monitored there until 2002.
Mohamed ElBaradei, whose team of investigators was expelled from North Korea, said: "We know they have the fissile material ... I'm sure they have reprocessed it all."
He said enough time had passed for North Korea to solve the problems of turning the 8000 spent nuclear fuel rods the agency was monitoring into weapons-grade plutonium. "The production process is not that difficult."
He said his claim was not based on new intelligence but on the agency's extensive knowledge of the country. A spokesman for the US National Security Council, Sean McCormack, said he was unaware of any change in the official assessment of North Korea.
Dr ElBaradei's comments go beyond anything the CIA or the US President, George Bush, have said publicly and puts pressure on the White House to either take forcible action against North Korea or cut a deal.
The US insists North Korea has enough nuclear material to make only one or two weapons and that it cannot afford to sell its plutonium or conduct a nuclear test. However, that assessment is based on estimates from the early 1990s and has been contested behind the scenes.
A former senior State Department official, Robert Einhorn, said the comments would "certainly create some pressure" on Mr Bush. "Would the North Koreans ever sell their plutonium? It becomes more plausible if they think we are turning the screws on them," he said.
North Korea agreed in 1994 to freeze plutonium production but in 2002 renounced the deal and ejected the International Atomic Energy Agency after the US accused it of trying to produce highly enriched uranium.
Since then the US had been working with China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to negotiate the dismantling of North Korea's weapons program, but the talks stalled in September. They are expected to resume next year.
Last month the commander of US forces in South Korea, General Leon LaPorte, said he was increasingly worried "North Korea, in its desire for hard currency, would sell weapons-grade plutonium to some terrorist organisations".
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said Dr ElBaradei's assessment was profoundly disturbing.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister, John Howard, said Mr Howard declined to comment.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has defended his decision not to allow international investigators to interrogate Dr A.Q.Khan, the Pakistani scientist accused of peddling nuclear secrets.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Mr Musharraf said requests from UN weapons inspectors indicated a lack of trust in Pakistan. "We can question him the best ... This man is a hero for the Pakistanis," he said.
The New York Times, The Washington Post
Don't forget Jimmah either.
Is there any country that seriously wanted to make a nuclear bomb but deferred or cancelled its plan because it's being monitored by IAEA?
Don't we have over 5000 THERMONUCLEAR warheads, any ONE of which could reduce that entire pimple-on-the-butt-of-the-world country to a large hole in the ground within a matter of say 30 minutes or so?.......
It's one thing to have a nuclear bomb. It's another thing, however, to have the infrastructure and electrical components to transport it, launch it, and making it explode. Sort of like having a car without the engine.
If this is true he's been caught with an ace up his sleeve and the U.S. should throw over the table on the U.N.'s rigged game.
Heard on FOXNEWS last week that this U.N. scandal goes VERY deep and that when the whole story is out, there will be a shock regarding the people involved. I haven't considered
Kojo Annan ther real culprit for some time; he's a well-paid scape-goat.
Wouldn't surprise me to learn that el Baradai AND the little schmoo Blix, who loves being on TV even now, were being paid off by Sadaam.
If it happens it will come to us in a ship, a truck, a commercial airliner etc etc etc. If it ever happens we will not know which rouge nation did it. Therefore the only logical answer would be to attack the military infrastructure of each and every rouge nation that wishes us harm and has the means to produce nuclear weapons. When I say attack I mean with thermonuclear weapons.
I hope the investigators 'follow the money'. There may be Americans who were on the take in the 1990s.
I agree. The unfortunate problem with using nukes is the fallout that would contaminate other countries freindly to us. Thats a hole we would have a tough time digging ourselves out of. If there was such a thing as a nuke with no fallout and any destruction from a detonation was localized, then this might be more feasable.
Clinton, Albright and Jimmy all did the spade work. Further, the next Administration didn't help matters--to their credit they did call off bilateral talks--but it was totally sidetracked from 2002-2004, preoccupied with Iraq...giving the DPRK basically an unfettered chance to continue to surreptitiously develop these weapons and cross over the "red line" with impunity (all the while we engaged in meaningless six party talks at an academic, arguing level in Beijing). As I independently pointed out on FR a number of times in the last two years. Now we are all may have hell to pay due to this bipartisan foreign and nuclear weapons disaster.
I think th NK people have had about enough
You know, maybe Jim
should announce that FR plans
to "acquire" The Bomb,
then the do gooders
will pay us all lots of cash
to "call off" our plans . . .
In talking with a buddy of mine whose an Air Force Intel weenie, he says that if Norh Korea even looks like they are about to explode a weapon, we will create a parking lot for China.
Making a deal with Jung is like copulating for virginity. NK has nothing to loose and big bucks to gain by selling nukes and the rockets to deliver them. The deal should be struck with China, Russia, Japan, and S. Korea, to eliminate this threat.
I thought the neutron bomb has the radiation and the fallout (that's how it kills) but does not have the explosive power to destroy buildings. It wipes a city clean of life but lets the infrastructure remain intact.
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