North Korea Reacts to 'Nuclear Lunatics' in White House

CNSNews ^ | 3/14/02 | Patrick Goodenough

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

North Korea has threatened to drop a 1994 agreement to freeze nuclear reactors suspected of producing weapons-grade plutonium, after learning about a Pentagon report that names it as one of seven potential targets for nuclear strikes.

In its first public reaction to news of the US nuclear posture review, the reclusive communist country's official Central News Agency accused the U.S. of "nuclear blackmail."

"Under the present situation where nuclear lunatics have taken office in the White House, we are compelled to examine all the agreements with the U.S.," the agency quoted Pyongyang's foreign ministry as saying in a statement.

In a separate statement, the agency warned that any attempt by the U.S. to start a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula would result in "nuclear disaster" for the Americans.

U.S. officials have made it clear the report constituted routine contingency planning, and that the U.S. was not preparing to use nuclear weapons against North Korea, Russia, China, Libya, Syria, Iran or Iraq.

President Bush Wednesday said the U.S. nuclear arsenal was a deterrent -- "a way to say to people who would harm America -- don't do it."

The Pentagon document also reportedly outlined potential scenarios for which the U.S. should be prepared to use the nuclear option -- a Mideast war, war between China and Taiwan, and a North Korean attack on South Korea.

"In case the U.S. plan ... turns out to be true, [North Korea] will have no option but to take a substantial countermeasure against it, not bound to any [bilateral] agreement," the North Korean statement said.

Under an "agreed framework" signed in October 1994, North Korea agreed to freeze and eventually dismantle an existing reactor and two under construction, as well as a reprocessing plant.

In return, the U.S. agreed to provide North Korea with alternative energy supplies, and build two large light water reactors, which are safer and produce much less plutonium.

But the CIA said in a recent unclassified report to Congress that Pyongyang was continuing efforts to obtain technology which could be used in a nuclear program. "We assess that North Korea has produced enough plutonium for at least one, and possibly two, nuclear weapons," it said.

President Bush recently described North Korea, Iran and Iraq, along with their terrorist allies, as an "axis of evil" which threatened world peace.

[GOP_1900AD]

Projection is the sincerest form of flattery. These Commies project their own mindset onto us. Tells me a lot about them. Why don't we nuke 'em? Like we should have done when MacArthur suggested it.