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D.P.R.K. Used Plutonium Bomb; Second Test Possible
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http://navyseals.com/community/articles/article.cfm?id=10257
D.P.R.K. Used Plutonium Bomb; Second Test Possible
Source: Global Security Newswire
Tuesday October 17, 2006
North Korea is believed to have used a plutonium-fueled bomb last week in its nuclear test, indicating that it has not yet succeeded in enriching uranium to levels that could be used in a weapon, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 16).
“This is good news because we have a reasonably good idea how much plutonium they have made,” said Siegfried Hecker, former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who has seen parts of Pyongyang’s nuclear infrastructure.
North Korea purchased uranium enrichment equipment and information from the nuclear black market operation once run by head Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Pyongyang’s plutonium stores are large enough to produce between six and 10 weapons, according to U.S. intelligence analysts.
Meanwhile, there have been signs that North Korea is planning a second test, the Times reported (Shanker/Sanger, New York Times, Oct. 17).
“I have received information on that, but can’t disclose the details,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said today, according to Agence France-Presse.
Recent satellite imagery of the site of the Oct. 9 underground blast has shown people and trucks, according to NBC News.
“U.S. intelligence is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test. But there isn’t any evidence one is imminent,” an intelligence official told AFP.
“We’re watching it, obviously, and discussing it with other parties as well,” said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “That would further deepen the isolation of North Korea and I hope they would not take such a provocative act”
A South Korean official said the images might show military activity that is not connected to a coming nuclear test.
“We’re preparing for uncertainties, but are very cautious in analyzing North Korea-related intelligence,” he said.
A Japanese lawmaker argued that the seeming failure of the test, measured at less than one kiloton, means that North Korea cannot be considered a nuclear power.
“If it was a failure, then North Korea does not possess a nuclear capability,” said Hidenao Nakagawa, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (Agence France-Presse I/Interactive Investor, Oct. 17).
There is some discussion among scientists and weapons designers that the test involved a complex, small weapon, the Washington Post reported. There is little intelligence about the design of the device that might have been used.
It might take North Korea up to a decade to produce a nuclear bomb that could be fitted to a missile, according to U.S. intelligence.
Rice plans in her trip this week to Asia and Russia to press nations to completely implement the sanctions approved Saturday by the U.N. Security Council.
“Every country in the region must share the burdens as well as the benefits of our common security,” she said yesterday. Her comments were directed at China and South Korea, which have expressed their intent to maintain some level of trade connections with their neighbor.
Nations must “collectively isolate” North Korea, Rice said (Kessler/Linzer, Washington Post, Oct. 17).
China said today it would meet its obligations under the resolution while also obeying its own regulations, AFP reported.
“The Chinese side has always implemented the Security Council’s resolutions seriously and in a responsible manner. This time is no exception,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
“We will act in accordance with our commercial regulations and domestic law,” he added (Agence France-Presse II/Channel NewsAsia, Oct. 17).
The sanctions are “a declaration of war,” North Korea announced today.
“It is quite nonsensical to expect the D.P.R.K. to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state,” according to a statement carried by the state-run news agency.
Chief South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Young-wood said the statement was “the usual rhetoric that they have been using at the time of the adoption of the Security Council resolution,” the Associated Press reported (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 17).
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2006_10_17.html#95C05643
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"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." -General George S. Patton
Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.
