Posted on 02/02/2005 8:20:32 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House said Wednesday that North Korea's nuclear initiative is a threat to world peace and urged the secretive regime in Pyongyang to resume talks aimed at ending the program.
"North Korea's nuclear program and nuclear weapons programs and its past and continuing proliferation activities are a threat to global peace and security," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "North Korea's actions underscore the importance of moving forward through the six-party talks."
McClellan, however, would not comment on a published report that said that based on scientific testing, U.S. intelligence agencies and government scientists believe that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya. He said he would not discuss intelligence matters.
McClellan urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks soon. He said two members of the National Security Council staff recently traveled to several Asian capitals to discuss ways to restart the negotiations.
"We put forward a proposal at the last round of talks," he said. "We believe it addresses the concerns of all parties involved in those decisions. We believe that the proposal is the way forward to finding a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue in North Korea."
"The proposal and the six-party process is the best way for North Korea to address the concerns of the international community and to end its international isolation," he said.
According to a report in The New York Times Wednesday editions, the scientific finding supports earlier clues that the dictatorship exported fuel for atomic weapons. Government officials in Washington are trying to determine whether North Korea has sold uranium, an ingredient necessary for atomic weapons, to other countries, including Iran and Syria. So far, there is no evidence of that.
The Times reported that international inspectors tested nearly two tons of uranium material that Libya surrendered to the United States last year when it dismantled its nuclear program. The material, uranium hexafluroide, can be converted into bomb fuel.
An unnamed official at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where extensive testing was performed in recent months, told the Times, "with a certainty of 90 percent of better, this stuff's from North Korea."
Experts said the findings advance the West's understanding of North Korea's uranium program.
"It means the North Koreans have built a facility to process uranium," Leonard S. Specter, the deputy director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute in California, told the Times. "And it raises the disturbing prospect that they've now made enough of it to feel comfortable selling some."
Nuclear intelligence experts said they compared samples of the Libyan uranium with samples from other countries by matching uranium isotopes.
They concluded that the uranium had to have come from North Korea.
Absolutely. What do you think gave Qaddafi the brown streak in his shorts?
You hit the nail on the head with that one. I may be paranoid, but when I read something like this I always think about who our TRUE allies are. I know one day we will find out what really happened to those WMD's in Iraq. They didn't just sprout legs & hide themselves.....they had some help.
Think of it like a chess game. We could have leveraged UN legal resolutions to gain popular support to organize a coalition to democratize arguably the most destabilizing nation in the heart of ME terrorist states and had NK at or back. Or we could have hit NK alone with little domestic or international support and dealt with a reinvigorated al-Qaeda terrorist state alliance without any US troop presence in the ME and a China feeling the need to demonstrate relevance. You decide on the next move.
Please don't change titles, and please credit authors when known.
Are you thinking of Niger? There was evidence that Saddam tried to acquire yellowcake, and Joe Wilson got caught lying and contradicting himself in his attempt to smear President Bush.
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BIG OOPS on my part. Not an intentional gaffe...I was pulling from a wire service w/o a headline.
About the UK & the others going after Iran-it really depends on what the intentions are.Is it just to send them a message to back off from their N-programme?? or to take out the regime itself??Sorry to be blunt,but without the US,both those options would be impossible.A lot of folks don't realise the consistent degrdation of the UK armed forces over the last decade.They are shaving off a large chunk of their surface fleet,axing among other items,the Type-22 & Type-23 class frigates.The Royal Navy's Sea Harriers are being retired along with the SeaDart missile,which in theory leaves them dependent on the USN for air cover.Their entire force of Jaguar strike jets & a bunch of Tornadoes are also on the chopping block.The same goes for some squadrons of Challenger tanks.Only their submarines can fire Tomahawks & that too by compromising it's ASW/ASUW capability(as they fire the Tomahawk from the Torpedo tubes).The RN surface fleet will be vulnerable to Iranian anti-ship missiles,which they have purchased in tonnes from the CIS & the PRC.Even if the Royal Army is assisted by the French & Germans,a land invasion of Iran,will be terribly difficult.About the Poles,Australians etc-no offense,but without the US around,most folks don't look as intimidating as they do now.Besides,the primary movers for a diplomatic solution to Iran are the Brits,French & Germans.Britain has pretty much stated it's opposition to any military action on Iran.Their armed forces are just too stretched & lacking in overall punch to participate .That will only change by around 2010 when they reorganise their services & induct new systems like the JSF,Eurofighter Tranche2 & 2 new carriers.
NP SoFlo!!
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