N.Korea Says Reprocessing 8,000 Nuclear Fuel Rods

Reuters ^

[Brian S]

Fri April 18, 2003 08:09 AM ET SEOUL (Reuters) - Communist North Korea said on Friday it was "successfully reprocessing" more than 8,000 spent fuel rods under its nuclear program that will be the focus of talks with the United States and China next week. "The Iraqi war teaches a lesson that in order to prevent a war and defend the security of a country and the sovereignty of a nation it is necessary to have a powerful physical deterrent force only," the North's KCNA news agency said on Friday, quoting a foreign ministry spokesman.

"As we have already declared, we are successfully reprocessing more than 8,000 spent fuel rods at the final phase, as we sent interim information to the U.S. and other countries concerned early in March after resuming our nuclear activities from December last year."

The statement also acknowledged for the first time expected three-way talks with the United States and China in Beijing next week to discuss the six-month-old nuclear impasse.

[Brian S]

"The Iraqi war teaches a lesson that in order to prevent a war and defend the security of a country and the sovereignty of a nation it is necessary to have a powerful physical deterrent force only,"

This will most likely be the 'theme of the decade' as the new weapons race commences.

[sd-joe]

Dumb N Koreans learn the wrong lesson from Iraq.

It was Iraq's development of WMD, and their refusal to give them up, that caused the war on Iraq.

[The G Man]

"Ya see ... what we got here is a failure to communicate."

[backhoe]

-The Atomic Genie- what we know about North Korea's Nuclear program--

[FreeAtlanta]

What it quarantees them is that if they become threatening enough with nukes, their whole nation will have to be dealt with in a more extreme manner than Iraq.

[Illbay]

Interesting. The opposite of Saddam: tell 'em every move you make.

[Illbay]

See, we should have listened to the Hollywood crowd. They TOLD us war would make things worse!

[AmericanInTokyo]

Pre-tripartite talks (typical DPRK) negotiation/posturing.

Staking out the hard ground. Will move to the center with concessions once we deliver our subtle threats through the backchannels.

[The Red Zone]

They may be dumb but they're also in thrall to Kim, who is a certifiable mad man.

[AmericanInTokyo]

He sits on a house of cards, quite afraid that the DPRK military will assassinate him and then themselves cut a deal with the West to liberalize the country and open it up. Western information about the victory in Iraq as well as other external news is seeping into the country, heard by the people, who themselves are fed up with lives of poverty and hunger. The statues coming down in Baghdad, many of them similiar to the statues of elder and younger Kim, is what has really freaked them out and sent a message.

Hence, Kim Jong il literally went deep underground for 50 days (with only the most trusted advisors) in the northern part of the country near China, near Mt. Baektu, before, during and after all the bombing and attack on Iraq. They also observed clear and dramatic real-time US pinpoint and bunker busting capabilities, (via CNN, Chinese press and other satellite sources 24/7) and came away very afraid for their lives. 21 days and Baghdad falls with minimum US casulties and essentially the citizen's infrastructure in place has devasted their minds in North Korea. They can only yap more like pissed off dogs, but they will refrain from snapping at heels for the time being.

[The G Man]

"The opposite of Saddam: tell 'em every move you make."

"Every move you make,
every claim you stake,
I'll be watching you."

[Bilbo]

ma boy kin eat fifty eggs!

[boknows]

They can only yap more like pissed off dogs, but they will refrain from snapping at heels for the time being.

Don't forget all the leg humping that will follow once we've turned our attention farther east.

[The Red Zone]

How many nukes will NK have if it manages to turn all 8000 rods into nukes? A handful? Can't we handle a small number of land launched nukes in such a confined area just fine with a thicket of Patriots staged in SK? Some race....

[DoctorMichael]

He sits on a house of cards.........

Speaking of cards............This strikes me as a 'call' in this little poker game we've got going here. Maybe he thinks he can wring a few more goodies from us during negotiations.

However, he IS bluffing with his 'busted straight'.

[The G Man]

ma boy kin eat fifty eggs!

What a classic movie.

[The Old Hoosier]

Thank you, Bill Clinton.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Nk does little with prior approval from the Red Chinese.

[VeniVidiVici]

My only question is if they just restarted the reactor in December, how do they have 8000 spent fuel rods already?