Posted on 04/29/2005 11:11:00 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Fri Apr 29,10:13 PM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States has warned the International Atomic Energy Agency that North Korea has been preparing to carry out an underground nuclear test since March and could go ahead as early as June, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.
The report, which quoted diplomatic sources in Vienna, came a day after the chief U.S. negotiator to stalled talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions said Washington believed North Korea might be trying to harvest material for a nuclear bomb from a shut-down reactor.
According to the sources, who said the information was obtained by satellite photos and from within North Korea, Pyongyang was preparing to test a small-scale plutonium device.
The United States had called on China to urge North Korea to halt its preparations, but there were no signs that Beijing had done so, the sources said.
Japanese officials were unavailable for comment.
Last week, following a similar report, a senior U.S. administration official said that Washington had seen no evidence that North Korea was preparing for a nuclear weapons test, although it had seen "lots of stuff suggesting interesting activity."
On Friday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Seoul that a North Korean plutonium reactor at Yongbyon had been shut down for close to three weeks and there could be an operation under way to reprocess nuclear material.
The shutdown and the possibility of a nuclear test were of great concern to nations trying to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs through six-party talks, he added.
In February, North Korea said it possessed nuclear weapons and was withdrawing from the talks, in which the United States, Japan, Russia, China and the two Koreas have taken part.
The last round took place in June 2004, and repeated efforts to restart the talks have failed.
So their plan is to set off the nuke, and celebrate 'the power of fatherland.'
Ping!
I guess it doesn't matter now if I run my credit cards up
Hmm...
We know where, we know about when and should be able to narrow down the when even closer...
Now, If I were a "strategerizer", I'd think about targeting the entire area of the test with a few MIRVs (or something a little more high tech) . Good chance of taking out a big chunk of their nuclear bomb program infrastructure and personnel..... and blame it on a test gone wrong.
They were too busy preparing launch codes...
They were too busy preparing launch codes.
Along with S.Korea and Tawain. Lets see....That should complete the circle of Nuke capable countries surrounding China......I dont think they want that....!
... And let the liberals cry.
I have an impression that Bush knows a lot more than he let on. I think U.S. pretends that it is kept mostly in the dark about what goes on in N. Korea. A typical poker move.
Excellent insight. Bush is a poker player through-and-through, close to the vest and largely unreadable. It must drive our enemies nuts.
This would be a dangerous game. If the DPRK really has nukes - who tells us that they use it in the way we are thinking of? It is probably much easier to smuggle a nuclear warhead into a big city in America and detonate it there than shooting it with a ICBM. Kim Jong Il is probably working on 3-4 warheads at the same time. If the USAF would bomb their nuclear facilitys, they could respond with a nuclear terror strike. We wouldn't even know who the terrorist was (Osama?, Kim Jong Il?, al-Sarkawi?, Chirac? (huhu) etc. etc. etc). Not very funny. It is probably better and more effective to eliminate the "dear" leader through a good sniper or some poison in his coffee. If he and his offspring are wiped out, freedom will find a way.
BTW - those links about north Korea are much funnier than their dammed nukes:
http://www.kdvr.de (Sorry - in German but exremly dumb)
http://www.korea-dpr.com/ (The long loading times are a real eperience - must be a top-of-the-line server of their own production)
Maybe Kim Jung-il will stand really close to it to get a better look at the explosion! ;-)
This whole affair reminds me of Beijing Opera. Maybe because stylized, ancient and masked. With really strange music, hey!!!
Beijing always prides itself as a master of tangled intrigues. The trouble is that they could get caught in it, and the whole thing could blow up in their face. They would like to think that they are in a driver seat until the last minute. Russians show the similar tendency.
It is the common trait of old empires. They have their grand vision and the mastery of byzantine intrigues over many centuries. They tend to think that they can always work their way to imperial glory via their mastery of intrigues.
Let the Chia Bastard light the fuse and make the tangled web ensnare China, who may be the bigger player than N. Korea in this game, so they deserve it.
Just hoping.
"Now, If I were a "strategerizer", I'd think about targeting the entire area of the test with a few MIRVs (or something a little more high tech) . Good chance of taking out a big chunk of their nuclear bomb program infrastructure and personnel..... and blame it on a test gone wrong."
Funny, I thought about a case of Ebola in Damascus and blame it on Saddams WMD program that moved to Syria.
We need to get direct access to A.Q.Khan and squeeze his nuts hard to get enough information and proof to blast South Korea and China out of their denial shell.
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