U.S. Scientist: N. Korea Pursuing Nukes

ap on Yahoo ^ | 11/08/05 | Foster Klug - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - A U.S. scientist who toured North Korea's reactors shortly before the country agreed to abandon its nuclear program said Tuesday he believes Pyongyang is still aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons.

Siegfried Hecker, a senior fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was given a rare inside look at apparent plutonium production by North Korean scientists in August, one month before negotiators from six nations reached their agreement. Talks are to start Wednesday on how to implement the September deal.

Based on what Hecker saw and was told during the visits, the nuclear scientist said North Korea is "moving full speed ahead with its nuclear weapons programs."

While others have visited the reactors, Hecker was given a particularly detailed look. He said North Korean scientists allowed him to hold what they claimed was plutonium, and he found it "inconceivable that (the North Koreans) don't have at least some sort of nascent uranium enrichment program" that could generate nuclear fuel for warheads.

The September agreement had no timetable for the North to abandon its nuclear program, and there's no indication it has done so. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who toured the reactor last month, said officials told him it was refueled in April and indicated they had reprocessed the spent fuel into plutonium.

At a nuclear nonproliferation conference in Washington, Hecker said Tuesday that North Korea is "poised to continue their program, to make more plutonium and to strengthen their deterrents."

He added, "We have to assume that the North Koreans have also made at least a few primitive nuclear devices."

The six-nation talks, which involve North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, are aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear programs.

Within a day of the September agreement, North Korea said it wouldn't dismantle its nuclear programs without getting concessions including a light-water nuclear reactor it says it needs to fight massive energy shortfalls. Washington wants North Korea's nuclear programs eliminated before talking about rewards.

Hecker, who also visited the North's reactors in January 2004, gave the conference a "rough estimate" of what he thought North Korea's nuclear status would be this month.

He said one small North Korean reactor would probably have the capacity to produce enough plutonium for at least one nuclear weapon a year. He said officials told him that a larger reactor, capable of producing much more plutonium, was being worked on, and officials believed they would finish it in a couple of years.

He added that while no one except a few people in North Korea knows whether the North has nuclear weapons, based on available evidence, "we have to assume they have bombs."

[rlmorel]

Franco is still dead.

[travlnmn41]

North Korea is like Bill Clinotn, constantly jumping up and down and saying, "Pay attention to me!"

[samadams2000]

Let them eat bombs...or bomb fragments.

[theDentist]

A U.S. scientist who toured North Korea's reactors shortly before the country agreed to abandon its nuclear program said Tuesday he believes Pyongyang is still aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons.

File this one under "No Sh**, Sherlock."

[GOP_1900AD]

Since he's a nuker himself, I highly value his observations. Personally, I suspect that this time around the DPRK are cheating even more heavily than they did after the 1994 "agreement." The lack of any punishment ever for their nuclear saber rattling has made them get very bold. The only solution is nasty. War.