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North Korea Acknowledges Having Nukes

2-9-2005 | SANG-HUN CHOE | Yahoo

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea publicly acknowledged Thursday for the first time that it has nuclear weapons and said it won't return to six-nation talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The statement from the reclusive, Stalinist state dramatically raised the stakes in the two-year-old nuclear confrontation and posed a grave challenge to President Bush, who started his second term with a vow to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programs through multilateral talks.

"We ... have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North)," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea had reportedly told American negotiators during private talks that it possessed nuclear weapons and might test one of them. North Korea's U.N. envoy told The Associated Press last year the country had "weaponized" plutonium extracted from its pool of 8,000 nuclear spent fuel rods.

But Thursday's statement marked North Korea's first public admission that it has nuclear weapons through its usual means of making official declarations — statements carried on KCNA, its main news outlet to world.

North Korea's "nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the ministry said. "The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth."

Since 2003, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks in Beijing aimed at persuading the North to abandon nuclear weapons development in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. But no significant progress has been made.

A fourth round scheduled for September was canceled when North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a "hostile" U.S. policy.

In the past weeks, hopes had risen that North Korea might return to six-nation talks, especially after Bush started his second term last month by refraining from direct criticism of North Korea.

On Thursday, North Korea said it had no intention to rejoin such talks any time soon.

"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks," the North said Thursday.

North Korea said it came to its decision because "the U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in (North Korea) at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick."

Still, North Korea said it retained its "principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged."

Such a comment has widely been interpreted as North Korea's negotiating tactic to get more economic and diplomatic concession from the United States before joining any crucial talks.

In Bush's State of the Union address last week, he only mentioned North Korea in a single sentence, saying Washington was "working closely with governments in Asia to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions." That was in stark contrast to Bush's speech three years ago, when he branded North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq.

The softened rhetoric had raised hopes for a positive response from North Korea, with analysts saying that the North would wait to hear Bush's speech before deciding to rejoin nuclear talks.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials accused North Korea of running a secrete uranium-enrichment program in violation of international treaties, and it and its allies cut off free fuel oil shipments for the impoverished country.

North Korea retaliated by quitting the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in early 2003 and restarting its plutonium-based nuclear weapons program. Its plutonium facilities had been frozen in return for oil shipments and other benefits under a 1994 deal with Washington.

The North had also claimed that it completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods previously unloaded from its 5-megawatt reactor and kept under U.N. seals under the 1994 deal. The reprocessing could yield enough plutonium for several nuclear bombs.

The North has also reloaded the 5-megawatt reactor, which can generate more spent fuel laden with plutonium.

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Stephanie S.

For some reason I always thought we knew that N. Korea had nukes. I guess they just felt a need to make a statement about it, to confirm the fact and make their position known. The full statement is here

After reading that and the recent statements of President Khatami in Iran, it seems like some nations are taking issue with they identify as "bullying", on the part of the US.


These are serious situations which ought to be handled with an enormous amount of restraint on the part of the U.S. I get a little creeped out though, when I read stuff like “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century,” presented by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), funded by three foundations closely tied to Persian Gulf oil and weapons and defense industries. This is an aggressive plan toward establishing the U.S. as the biggest bully in the world.

If I was the leader of N Korea or Iran and I read that document, I would definitely take a posture toward the US that says, "Don't screw with me."
The U.S. is sticking its nose into everyone elses business when life here at home could be siginficantly improved. If half the friggin resources allocated to US foreign interests was spent here at home, the possibilities for making the US better are endless.

peace

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vladimir

iran: said it wants to use its nuclear weapons program for energy, in a peaceful way. theres no way to prove that 100%, but its what they say.
north korea: says it has nukes, has a leader who feels bullied by everyone around him (besides maybe china)

given the situations in those two countries, i am appalled that the us is preparing war plans to enter iran, and has NOT ruled out military force there, yet at the same time says it will do nothing to harm north korea. this is even more messed up than invading iraq before north korea, or really just invading any country based on faulty intelligence.

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Herb Ninja

U.S. Warns That N. Korea Faces Isolation

2-10-2005 | KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER | Yahoo

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, chafing under North Korea's retreat from multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, sought Thursday to push Pyongyang back to the bargaining table and warned that it faces increasing international isolation.

{HerbNinja: The Bush administration talking about isolation instead of intervention - amazing!}

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to confront the issue head-on as the North Koreans announced their renunciation of six-party talks as she was wrapping up her first international trip as the top U.S. diplomat. At a meeting of European Union leaders in Luxembourg, she said the world community had given North Korea "a way out" and said its leaders should take it.

President Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan, talked similarly back in the United States, telling reporters traveling with Bush that the United States still wants six-party talks.

"We remain committed to a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue with regards to North Korea," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a presidential appearance in Fargo, N.D. "It's time to talk about how to move forward."

Both Rice and McClellan played down any significance of North Korea's dramatic public announcement Thursday that it has nuclear weapons. "We've heard this kind of rhetoric from North Korea before," McClellan said.

U.S. officials believe North Korea may have anywhere from four to two dozen nuclear devices, depending on the assumptions used about the bombs' designs.

The United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have struggled to arrange a fourth round of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. The last round was held last June.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the Bush administration has failed to sufficiently pressure China to use its leverage with the North Koreans and said the administration also should consider direct, two-party talks with North Korea.

"This administration has not paid enough attention to the situation in North Korea," Pelosi said. "The North Koreans know that we are otherwise occupied in military actions in other parts of the world and they have taken the liberty to be brazen."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know whether North Korea had the weapons it claimed, but "one has to be concerned about it from a proliferation standpoint."

"One has to worry about weapons of that power in leadership of that nature," he added. "I don't think anyone would characterize the leadership in that country as being restrained."

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that the North Korean government had been laying the groundwork for the announcement for some time, with less public statements aimed at revealing a nuclear deterrent.

For example, the regime privately told Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in 2002 that it had a secret uranium-enrichment program that violated its 1994 agreement.

North Korea's announcement Thursday came one week after anonymous Bush administration officials said there was strong evidence that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya.

Higher Logic

Let's just have a pre-emptive strike on them. Only difference is they DO have WMDs

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Hiz Highness

. . . and they ship uranium to places like Libya and god-knows where else. Unlike that paper tiger Saddam, they're an actual threat. We're taking a hard line with them though; Condi is begging them to please, please, please come back to the 6-party negotiating table.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe...ice/index.html

Shameful.

-HH

^_^truth

Is it just me or does it sound like N. Korea is just trying to estiblish themselves as an equally strong nation just like that of all of the other nations?

But nevermind that, Lets see what a little bit of devils advocate can provide us:

If N. Korea is truthful in its statements that it has only estiblished these nukes to fend off the U.S's fairly hostile view on foreign policy, then is it rightfully dignified that they are attempting to create a stalemate with the U.S. just as the former U.S.S.R did? I see nothing wrong with creating this state of equals agreeing to disagree with Nukes set and ready in case something happens. If anything, I think this encourages N. Korea to not supply terrorists with nukes because who is the U.S. going to blame for any attacks with those weapons, N. Korea.

And on another note, there is a bright side to this, if N. Korea has an arsenal that was about the size of the former U.S.S.R's in it's infant stages, it can create the situtation that if the U.S. does any other pre-emtive strike on any other country N. Korea can threaten to launch its nukes.

But of course N. Korea isn't yet a threat to the U.S. with its range for firepower.

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S2

NK was pursuing Nukes long before W came along. The stalemate with USSR was based on Mutual Assured Destruction. NK is a long way from anything other than pulling off one big bang then their total annihilation. Jong Il is attention getting and posturing with no new information because he doesn't want Patriot missles at his border.

HappyMan

This isn't even realy news. It as been assumed for a few years that N. Korea has nukes, Confirmation doesn't change much.

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vladimir

actually, theres no real confirmation that he has them. he keeps saying he does, but saddam did the same thing to get more respect in the world, and its now clear he didnt have any.
i still wouldnt mess too much with them, kim jong il is crazy.