Agency Says North Korea Able to Mount Warheads on Missiles

WASHINGTON, April 28 - The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said today that American intelligence agencies believe North Korea has mastered the technology for mounting a nuclear warhead on its missiles, an assessment that, if correct, means the country could build weapons to threaten Japan and perhaps the western United States.

The conclusion was part of a total reassessment of North Korea's capabilities that the D.I.A.'s chief, Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, said was still under way. While Admiral Jacoby said North Korea was judged to have the capability to put a nuclear weapon atop its missiles, he stopped well short of saying they have already done so, or even that they had assembled warheads small enough for the purpose. Nor did he give any evidence to back up his view during the public session of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

But he appeared to be putting a final conclusion on a study the intelligence community has had under way for at least two years. In 2003, the United States warned South Korea and Japan that satellite imagery had identified an advanced nuclear testing site in a remote corner of North Korea where equipment had been set up to test conventional explosives that, when detonated, could compress a plutonium core and set off a compact nuclear explosion.

Since then, American investigators have been pressing Pakistan for details of what kind of technology North Korean engineers might have been given in visits they made to Pakistani nuclear sites. North Korea supplied Pakistan with many of the missiles Pakistan uses for its own nuclear arsenal.

North Korea is considered one of the most opaque intelligence targets for American analysts, and the absence of reliable human spies had made it all the more difficult to understand the progress of its program.

But when asked by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in a hearing today whether "North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device," Admiral Jacoby responded, "The assessment is that they have the capability to do that, yes ma'am."

If President Bush accepts that judgment, it could significantly complicate choices he must make in the next several months. North Korea declared publicly for the first time in February that it had nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, American spy satellites detected that the country had shut down its nuclear power plant at Yongbyon and could be preparing to reprocess the plant's spent fuel, a move that could result in the production of enough plutonium to build up to two or three more nuclear bombs.

Admiral Jacoby said that the United States had increased its assessment of the current North Korean arsenal's size, but he gave no numbers.

Six-nation talks the United States is backing in an effort persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program have been stalled since last June. China, a neighbor and ally of communist North Korea, has been host to three inconclusive rounds of the negotiations, which involved the United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

She added: "We have been locked into this six-party idea now for a number of years and all the while we've seen North Korea going about the business of acquiring nuclear weapons and the missile capacity to deliver those to the shores of the United States."

Admiral Jacoby also confirmed the assessment that North Korea has the ability to deploy a two-stage intercontinental missile that could reach portions of the continental United States, in addition to Hawaii and Alaska. He added that a formal assessment under way by United States intelligence agencies of North Korea's nuclear program would be completed next month.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/10/23/albright.northkorea.ap/

Albright in historic meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Il

October 23, 2000

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held unprecedented talks today with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, as she began laying the groundwork for a visit by President Clinton to one of the last bastions of the Cold War.

With a firm handshake, Albright and Kim moved their two nations -- longtime adversaries -- a bit closer.

Kim noted that Albright was the first U.S. secretary of state to visit North Korea. "This is a new one from a historical point of view," he said. "I am really very happy."

Responded Albright: "I'm very glad to be here in your beautiful city."

Albright arrived to a low-key arrival ceremony that belied the significance of her visit. Asked if the United States was moving too quickly in the relationship with North Korea, she said, "We're not moving faster than it makes sense."

Images of Kim's father and North Korea founder Kim Il Sung were everywhere as Albright traveled from the airport to downtown, a reminder of the country's communist origins more than 50 years ago. The face of the "Great Leader," as he is called, beamed from an airport mural, from billboards and from signs adorning buildings along Albright's route.

Her first stop was at the Kim Il Sung Palace, which was converted into a mausoleum after his death in 1994.

Despite the overtures inherent in Albright's visit and the efforts to set up one by Clinton, U.S. officials warned in advance that serious differences remained between the two nations.

Of primary concern is North Korea's missile development program and its export of missiles to Iran and Syria. Albright planned to discuss those issues with Kim Jong Il but officials said no agreements are expected.

South Korean officials welcomed the Albright trip. "We must consider as desirable the North Korean moves to set up new relations with the outside world," said presidential spokesman Park Joon-young.

Some critics feared, however, the visit might make Pyongyang less willing to talk to the South.

Albright and Kim met in the luxury guest house where she was staying. Plush carpet lined the floors, and crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling. Later Monday, she planned to attend a dinner hosted by Kim.

North Korea is suffering from a severe food shortage, and Albright visited a kindergarten in the Rang Nang District that participates in the U.N. World Food Program

The kindergarten children, lined up in neat rows on a dirt playground, performed traditional dances for Albright, who mimicked their motions. A small boy hid behind a sack of U.S.-donated wheat while a classmate tossed the white powder at him.

The United States has contributed nearly 1.5 million tons of food to the U.N. program, Albright said.

She told the food program staff: "Your work is vital because these children and their brothers and sisters around the country should be able to grow up without fear of emergency shortages and famine. And international donors should be assured that the supplies they send are used for the purposes intended."

Later, Kim asked her how the kindergarten visit went. "I danced with the children. I'm very satisfied," she said.

As Clinton seeks to build a foreign policy legacy in the waning days of his administration, his opening toward North Korea seems more promising than any other, a turn of events few would have predicted six years ago when the two counties seemed close to war.

Kim has shown a surprise willingness to reciprocate to Clinton's moves to seek accommodation. He has been reaching out not only to the United States but to other countries, most notably South Korea.

In a communique issued two weeks ago at the conclusion of a visit to Washington by Jo Myong Rok, a top Kim adviser, the two nations pledged "to take steps to fundamentally improve their bilateral relations in the interests of enhancing peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region."

Kim thanked Albright for her making the arrangements for Jo's visit and ensuring that it went smoothly.

The threat of war has hung over the Korean peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953. About 37,000 American troops are stationed in South Korea.

"The U.S. government is very clear, as is the Republic of Korea, that American military forces need to remain in Korea even after there is a reduction in tension and even if there is reunification on the Korean peninsula," State Department official Morton Halperin said Monday during a visit to Canberra, Australia.

"We are at a historic moment in which the last remaining Cold War confrontation may finally be coming to an end," he said. "As we move forward we need to move carefully, we need to remember that there is still a very serious North Korean military threat on the peninsula."

The United States is considering the creation of a national missile defense, partly out of concern that North Korea may someday direct ICBM's at American cities.

North Korea has for years ignored American efforts to stop it from exporting missiles. There are indications that Pyongyang may be beginning to listen to those concerns.

Albright's visit to North Korea followed one by China's defense minister, Gen. Chi Haotian. In meetings Sunday with North Korea's defense minister, Vice Marshal Kim Il Chol, Chi promised that China would maintain strong military ties with Pyongyang, according to Chinese state media.

China has ties with both North and South Korea.

After two days of talks in North Korea, Albright planned to fly across the Demilitarized Zone to Seoul to brief senior officials from Japan and South Korea. Both nations continue to be nervous about North Korea's military.

would someone please remind Hillary that we are NOT STUPID, we can REMEMBER these news bits, not to mention, we can find them in 30 seconds....

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/12/221552.shtml

Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004 10:13 p.m. EDT
Albright: North Korea 'Cheated' on Clinton Nuke Agreement

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted for the first time on Sunday that under the Clinton administration's Agreed Framework arms control treaty with Kim Jong-il, North Korea "cheated."

Asked point-blank if North Korea developed nuclear weapons during the Clinton administration, Albright told NBC's "Meet the Press," "No, what they were doing, as it turns out, they were cheating."

"The worst part that has happened under the Agreed Framework," Albright said, was that "there [were] these fuel rods, and the nuclear program was frozen." But because of North Korea's cheating, she explained, "those fuel rods have now been reprocessed, as far as we know, and North Korea has a capability, which at one time might have been two potential nuclear weapons, up to six to eight now, we're not really clear."

Albright's comments came less than 24 hours after reports surfaced that Pyongyang detonated what some said was its first above-ground nuclear test – though experts later said the mushroom-cloud explosion witnessed by tens of thousands was a non-nuclear event.

In a February 2003 interview, Albright boasted to NBC, "When we had the Agreed Framework, we did freeze those fuel rods, and had we not, in the last years, we would have somewhere, people calculate, 50 to 100 nuclear weapons."

A 1999 congressional study determined that Pyongyang was cheating on the agreement, but Albright disregarded the warning and continued to claim that the Agreed Framework was a success.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1357114/posts

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/6/93951.shtml

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/18/192530.shtml
Evidence Clinton Knew About North Korea's Nuclear Violations
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Saturday, Oct. 19, 2002
WASHINGTON – The United States is not as prepared "as it should be” if America has to fight Iraq, North Korea and China all at once. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Clinton administration did know about the North Korean nuclear buildup, despite its protestations to the contrary.
"We are not as ready as we should be,” Frank Gaffney, president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, said at a briefing under the auspices of the Center for Military Readiness (CMR).

At the same gathering, Adam Mersereau, an attorney and Marine veteran, said the current military had been undermined by three factors:

The weakening of the "warlike ethos” whereby training standards have been compromised to accommodate more women in the military.

The zero-tolerance mentality. Commanders have been so severely punished for military accidents that many of them "are backing off” from necessary training.

The military is too small. In the 1990s, "the military was slashed to the bone.”
"We don’t have the numbers,” said Gaffney, who served as a high official in the Reagan administration’s Defense Department, at the time of a military buildup that helped win the Cold War. The Clinton slashing of military strength, he opined, "is particularly egregious in terms of ships. That is where we most likely would demonstrate presence and begin projecting power in distant places around the world.”

The U.S. is "on a fast track to a 260-ship fleet,” Gaffney observed, "and that’s simply not enough to maintain the kind of global presence that we really need to have in peacetime to deter wars.”

Horrible Scenario

Mersereau had posited a situation where, while the U.S. is fighting Iraq to head off Saddam Hussein’s intent to use chemical and biological warfare against Americans, North Korea attacks South Korea and China decides it’s time for the long-awaited showdown over Taiwan.

"Even one nuclear bomb in the hands of Kim Jong-il is one too many,” Gaffney told the briefing. He noted irony in the fact that former President Jimmy Carter was instrumental in negotiating that 1994 nuclear agreement, and that just days after Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, North Korea admitted it had not lived up to its word.

Word of Dishonor

When the Clinton administration announced the agreement in 1994, more than one person pointed out at the time that the assumption that the militantly Stalinist regime would abide by its terms was based on little more than blind faith.

In a statement issued Friday, David A. Keene, co-chairman of Americans for Missile Defense, declared, "The North Koreans’ persistent eschewing of weapons inspectors undoubtedly raised red flags,” but left-wingers in Congress and the Clinton administration "believed for years that they offered protection.”

Now they admit they have been secretly building a massive arms production program. Given their decades-long record of deceit, added Keene, "is anyone surprised that they couldn’t be trusted?”

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Wendy Sherman, one of her assistants in the Clinton State Department, are now saying they did not know that the North Koreans were lying. They simply assumed the Stalinist nation was abiding by its word, despite experiences with communists, ignoring the fact that it was Lenin, the father of 20th-century communism, who once said treaties were "like pie crusts,” to be broken.

Albright's Not So Bright

Also on Friday, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh produced a speech by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay showing that as far back as 1998, intelligence sources were contradicting Albright’s assertion at the time that the North Koreans were not in violation of the Carter-negotiated treaty.

Way back in 1998, DeLay had called for the suspension of the $4 billion to $6 billion agreement to build two light-water nuclear reactors and to provide other assistance to North Korea until the president certifies that the North Korean government has agreed to cease its efforts to build these weapons and the means to divert them.

Limbaugh commented that Wendy Sherman had "made a buffoon of herself” by insisting the Clinton administration had no reason to believe North Korea was breaking its word, despite warnings from "Defense Intelligence Agency people, CIA people,” as DeLay was reporting in 1998.

"They’re all circling the wagons to protect Clinton,” Limbaugh told his listeners.

And now, North Korea boldly admits it has a nuclear weapons program just as the U.S. is preparing to go to war with Iraq, whose madman dictator prepares nuclear, biological and chemical weapons to attack the free world.

Amplifying on his statement about the need to maintain military strength to deter wars and keep the peace, Frank Gaffney told the CMR briefing: "I am as anxious as anyone to avoid having to fight anyone if it can be avoided. I simply believe that the alternative to fighting, appeasement, is a formula for making things worse.

"If we can deter people from picking a fight with us or trying to exploit [a situation where we are distracted], that is very much to be preferred over having to fight them simultaneously.”

During the Nazi buildup in Europe in the late 1930s, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned that if you fail to confront an aggressor from the vantage point of strength, you may ultimately have to confront an even stronger enemy from the vantage point of relative weakness.

Security analysts believe that is a lesson of history the Clinton administration ignored, as is clear from its refusal to face the North Korean nuclear buildup despite warnings from its own intelligence sources.

As a NewsMax book has documented, this very attitude is Clinton’s "Bitter Legacy.”

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