Posted on 06/26/2008 7:21:48 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
North Korea prepares to destroy nuclear reactor
PYONGYANG, North Korea (CNN) -- A day after releasing details of its long-secret nuclear program, North Korea on Friday plans to destroy a highly visible tower at a facility where officials now acknowledge they extracted plutonium to build nuclear weapons. Workers remove fuel rods on the reactor floor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility this year.
The massive implosion at the Yongbyon facility is intended to be a powerful public symbol of a move to end nuclear activities by the Communist nation once branded a member of an "axis of evil" by U.S. President George W. Bush. But the move will also have a practical purpose. Nuclear experts say that the plant's destroyed central water-cooling tower would take a year or longer to rebuild if North Korea were to try using the plant again. "This is a critical piece of equipment for the nuclear reactor," said analyst John Wolfsthal, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has been following North Korea since the 1980s. "Without this facility, the reactor can't operate and can't produce more plutonium for weapons."
For months, North Korea has been dismantling other parts of the facility under the watchful eyes of representatives of the five other nations, including the United States, that have been involved in six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. On Thursday, North Korean officials turned over to China a 60-page declaration, written in English, that details several rounds of plutonium production at the Yongbyon plant dating back to 1986.
In it, North Korea acknowledges producing roughly 40 kilograms of enriched plutonium -- enough for about seven nuclear bombs, according to the U.S. State Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
By means of making one giant dirty bomb?
Another Bush FP success.
bush will never get his part of the credit.
meanwhile, dems will wax poetic about the great ol’ days of
clinton’s nkorea policies.
They are destroying a cooling tower? Is the reactor 100% off line?
I can’t help but think that all the goodies inside have been sold and shipped to Obama’s buddies in the Mideast.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is expected this week to turn over its long-delayed accounting of its nuclear weapons activities, part of a chain of events leading to a unique photo opportunity: the destruction of the cooling tower at Pyongyang's main reactor.
One item that won't make the declaration, which the White House says is due Thursday, will be North Korea's nuclear bombs. The omission means the world will have to wait for an answer to the question at the heart of the nearly six-year-old standoff: Is the North ready to give up its nuclear weapons?
IIRC Syria is at the top of that list,,,
The IAF took care of part of that...
what nuclear reactor?
oh yeah the one that then President Clinton gave them, that one gotcha
isn’t that funny!
that’s how democrats view diplomacy with commies.
I guess the Iranian Nuc arrived for its test.
Suspicious me thinks they’re only destroying this reactor because thier secret underground plant is now operational.
How is “the mother of their bomb” taking this? Old Maddie got used like a cheap whore. Seven bombs worth ... and of course it is all accounted for, right? And let us not forget dear Hans Blix, his portrait found several places in the dictionary most notably under “incompetence.”
Naturally they’ll destroy the reactor because they now have all the Plutonium they need. No doubt the dummies in Congress will praise this as a harbinger of world peace. Somebody release the doves!
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