Okay Kim, How Do You Want It? Regular or Extra-MIRVed?
Posted on 01/24/2005 1:07:10 PM PST by nickcarraway
A top North Korean official told a U.S. delegation on a recent visit to the communist state that it possesses nuclear weapons, which some analysts say is the first such official acknowledgement, a U.S. radio station reported.
But some South Korean experts and a senior government official played down the remarks.
Radio Free Asia said on Friday that Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, claimed North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan told the delegation during its Jan. 11-14 visit that the North possessed nuclear weapons.
Kim said, however, that the North's nuclear arsenal was defensive in nature and Pyongyang did not intend to possess it forever, RFA quoted Rep. Weldon as saying.
The U.S. lawmaker also said North Korea's deputy leader and the president of its assembly Kim Yong-nam said that Pyongyang had learned from the examples of India, Pakistan and Israel that the North could only defend itself from attack if it had nuclear arms.
North Korea is believed to have built one or two nuclear weapons, and possibly more than eight, using spent plutonium.
Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions have yet to make any headway, with a fourth round delayed since September 2004.
No official comment was immediately available from the South Korean Unification Ministry.
"The credibility of the remarks should be checked thoroughly first," a senior ministry official said, requesting anonymity.
The official noted there have been many instances of North Korean officials making and then withdrawing statements about the North possessing nuclear weapons.
In September, Pyongyang's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon claimed after a U.N. speech that Pyongyang has reprocessed and "weaponized" 8,000 spent plutonium fuel rods as a deterrent against U.S. hostility.
South Korean experts said North Korea's latest declaration of possession of nuclear weapons is another negotiating tactic to increase its bargaining position in the stalled six-party negotiations involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
"The declaration is aimed at bringing Washington to the negotiating table, as they think Washington has yet to show any promise for the survival of the regime and economic assistance," professor Lee Chul-ki at the department of International relations at Dongkuk University said in a telephone interview. "I think North Korea might have developed nuclear explosive devices, but that does not mean it has weapons," he said.
He said North Korea stressed that it could discard its nuclear ambitions if the United States gives up its "hostile policy" and promised survival of its regime.
The reported remarks by Kim Kye-gwan to the six-member Weldon delegation came a week before U.S. President George Bush launched his second term.
Kim Yong-nam was also quoted as saying the North did not intend to retain its nuclear weapons program on a long-term basis and expressed the hope for favorable bilateral relations.
"The president of the country said that he foresaw the day when America and North Korea would be friends," the RFA quoted Weldon as saying last week about his meeting with Kim Yong-nam.
Paik Hak-soon, director of the Center for North Korea Studies in Seoul's privately operated Sejong Institute, noted no clear evidence of nuclear tests so far to regard the North as a nuclear weapons state. He said Kim's statement hints at its desperation in ensuring channels to talk for the regime's survival.
But Paik said Pyongyang is inching toward becoming a nuclear state, as it thinks Washington has showed no intention to resolve the nuclear issue.
Kang Jung-min, a nuclear expert at Seoul National University, was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency that it is highly likely for the North to develop crude nuclear weapons targeting U.S. bases in South Korea.
It's the other 25% that worries me. Sometimes when a whacko goes all in, he has the cards.
Okay Kim, How Do You Want It? Regular or Extra-MIRVed?
I'd like to agree with you, but I see the South Koreans just as eagerly selling nukes as the North Koreans.
And no, I'm not kidding. They are not remotely subtle in their references to their alliance with our country as one of convenience for THEM. If they had their own nukes, it'd just be a matter of time before the Commie-lovers they have running their country start hawking the bomb to Arab countries that are aligned against us.
Ask yourself this: what have they done for US lately? The answer you're likely to come up with:
Yeah, that's right:
I'll say it again--they have done this for us:
That at least is a good thing. I heard that Arafat was killed by a pack of wild boars and the world is still happy.....
Translation: We intend to give them to terrorists? OR We know Bush is about to get rid of them for us?
Hey that's my line! /8^)
Bump
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