U.S. Source: N. Korea Says Has Nukes

Yahoo News ^ | 10/16/02 | George Gedda - AP

[ChadGore]

Nice picture. Who's the tool in the hat ?

[Freemeorkillme]

No, I think, in that case, we'll be hustling to his site to feel his pain!

[FreeReign]

Under a 1994 agreement with the United States, North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program, and it promised to allow inspections to verify that it did not have the material needed to construct such weapons.

What a great president that Bill Clinton was. </approriate tag>

[Freemeorkillme]

I'll bite.

[hole_n_one]

How does a North Korean nuke get to Iraq?

Practice, practice, practice.

My apologies to Henny Youngman

[Freemeorkillme]

I'll bite.

[theDentist]

I don't know his name, but he's high up in thge NK gov't.

Probably another long-lost brother.

[goldstategop]

Its interesting these are the SAME "tough" inspections being demanded by our French, Russian, and Chinese friends. I wouldn't be surprised after a few such inspections to find out Saddam has nukes after all. Basically there's the case for attacking Iraq in the absence of ANY inspections, period. We simply cannot afford to be fooled twice. Its bad enough Bubba had us bamboozled by other member of the Axis Of Evil.

[Freemeorkillme]

Properly phrased:

How does a North Korean nuke get to Iraq now that Bush is President?

hmmmm...errrr he doesn't.

[NormsRevenge]

The disclosure, which stunned senior administration officials, is certain to chill U.S.-North Korean relations.

"stunned" :-?

I wonder how much longer Tenet can last at the CIA ? He should have been gone long ago. Our intelligence machine needs some work, Im afraid.

[templar]

they may have alot now..and the missles to deliver them

Deliver them where? What's in range?

[John H K]

Well, just to explore how much fun baseless speculation can be...

How about the DC sniper (olive-skin? small stature?) as a PRK agent?

Montgomery County is chock-full of Koreans. Easy to blend in. North Korean Intelligence has a long history of inscrutable, messed-up stuff. Blew up a South Korean Airliner before the Seoul Olympics in hopes of disrupting them.

[Uncle Miltie]

If cement has been laid on the nuclear reactors Clinton gave them, bomb them to rubble now. A deal's a deal. Break it, and we break you.

[ffrancone]

I think, if truth be known, that more was said than "yes, we have it." There is a point to this admission.

Agreed. They are saying: "We know you are going to change the regime in Iraq. We know you have identified us as a member of the axis of evil. Don't change our regime. We have nukes. We will use them."

The message is pretty clear, no?

[edsheppa]

Deliver them where? What's in range?

1000km - Japan and, of course, South Korea are in range.

[JasonC]

That is indeed the right question - not the fact, which anybody with half a brain knew was in the cards from the day of Clinton's capitulation-deal years ago, but the admission of the fact. There are two obvious possible explanations for the willingness to state it for the record.

The first is that they are trying to stop digging deeper in the hole they are in. There are signs of this in economic policy changes, contacts with South Korea, releasing Japanese abductees. Which may be trying to get off the axis of evil hit parade, and may be a sign that the internal famine etc is so bad they know they have to do something fairly drastic, very soon. This is the optimistic reading of the admission.

The other possibility, less hopeful than the previous, is that the admission simply means they are done. And having a bomb in hand, believe they have the deterrence capability to protect continuation of the program from direct military action. That they want to use it as a diplomatic bargaining chip, but as an accomplished fact. To bargain with it they have to admit it, obviously.

A slight possible twist here is they may want the bargaining or deterring effect, without actually having finished - i.e. that it is a bluff. But I consider that less likely than the other two.

For what it is worth...

[American in Israel]

Deliver them where? What's in range?

About a year and a half ago a Korean missile test dropped its last stage offshore California. Whats in range? What isn't!