Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=1476
Rumsfeld: North Korea Test Threat Must Be Taken Seriously
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2006 – North Korea is a known weapon proliferator, and there is a danger that the rogue state may sell nuclear technology to non-state entities, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today.
Rumsfeld spoke during an impromptu Pentagon news conference following meetings with Croatian Defense Minister Berislav Roncevic.
The secretary said the North Korean threat to test nuclear weapons must be taken seriously. He said the North Korean regime has claimed to have nuclear arms since 2003. “We have no way of knowing,” if they have nuclear weapons or not, he said.
The danger to the world is that if the regime does have nuclear arms, it already has demonstrated its willingness to sell the technology to the highest bidder. Non-state actors or terrorist groups are actively seeking weapons of mass destruction. They have no compunction about using those weapons, and they have no hard targets that the civilized world could threaten, Rumsfeld said.
The secretary said diplomacy is still the way ahead in addressing the issue. He said President Bush has pushed the Six-Party Talks – U.S., South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and North Korea – as the way forward.
If North Korea does test a nuclear weapon, then the international community is going to have to examine the situation to understand why the world could not marshal “the cooperation and cohesion to apply leverage to North Korea” to stop the spread of nuclear arms, he said.
The example of North Korea could encourage other states to develop nuclear capabilities, too, he said. It would lower the threshold for these nations.
"North Korea is a known weapon proliferator, and there is a danger that the rogue state may sell nuclear technology to non-state entities, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today. . . The danger to the world is that if the regime does have nuclear arms, it already has demonstrated its willingness to sell the technology to the highest bidder. Non-state actors or terrorist groups are actively seeking weapons of mass destruction. They have no compunction about using those weapons, and they have no hard targets that the civilized world could threaten, Rumsfeld said. . ."
Thanks for finding this. I saw it earlier yesterday evening but only saw it on Bloomberg and so I couldn't post it. Glad it has been picked up by others. I was going to use it to help make an earlier point on why nuclear terror is such a real and imminent threat. Even if one concedes the argument of the skeptics and we assume that al Qaeda is not nuclear capable at the moment, that distinction can change very quickly. The concern expressed by the current Secretary of Defense is the reason why a former Secretary of Defense, one much less hawkish than Rumsfeld, stated in a 2003 article I posted last week that any escalating crisis with North Korea brings with it an escalating risk of "an imminent danger of nuclear weapons being detonated in American cities".
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/15/1058035006906.html?oneclick=true
In the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea was like Afghanistan, they actually had terrorist training camps on their territory. Literally thousands of Mideast terrorists passed through those camps. Supposedly, those camps were shut down. But they are not out of the business, just much more discreet. North Korea is still listed as one of the seven or so state sponsors of terrorism designated by our State Department. Kim Jong-Il has personally planned and supervised abductions, assassinations, and even hijackings. He is a terrorist himself. And they still are a part of that world. The question is whether this nuclear-armed terrorist decides to up the ante, and once he decides he no longer has nothing to lose. He will.