North Korea 'May Test Nuclear Bomb'

news.com.au ^

[squidly]

Nuclear tests 'by December' June 30, 2003

NORTH Korea has enough plutonium to make six to 10 nuclear weapons and could test such a weapon by the end of the year, a former US negotiator with the Stalinist state said in an interview published today.

"To the best of my knowledge, based on very well-informed Washington sources, North Korea's nuclear program is moving ahead very quickly," Kenneth Quinones was quoted as saying by the Daily Yomiuri.

"Basically, this means North Korea's reprocessing (of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel) is almost finished, or has finished. This means North Korea now has enough plutonium to make six to 10 nuclear weapons," he said.

"If North Korea wants to use their nuclear weapon as negotiating leverage, they must test it," said Quinones, who is now the Korean affairs director at the Washington-based private think-tank, International Center.

"The more I talked to my friends, the more I realise that it is possible for North Korea to have a nuclear weapon by December. It is possible they'll have a test by December. There is nothing to stop North Korea from doing this."

He said it took about six months to reprocess plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and then about six months to make a nuclear bomb, according to the daily.

As a US state department official, Quinones was involved in US talks with North Korea that led to a 1994 agreement that froze its nuclear program in exchange for light-water reactors for power generation and heavy fuel aid.

Pyongyang has however declared the agreement void amid a dispute with Washington about its nuclear ambitions.

The dispute arose last October when the United States said North Korea had admitted to running a nuclear weapons program based on highly enriched uranium. Washington then cut off fuel aid to the energy-starved regime.

North Korea later unsealed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods from an old graphite-moderate reactor, which produces weapons-grade plutonium as a by-product.

On June 9, communist North Korea declared publicly for the first time in an official media dispatch that it was seeking nuclear weapons.

Quinones, who visited North Korea 13 times from 1992 to 1997, said that while North Korea was believed to have the technology and material to produce nuclear weapons from plutonium, the country would possibly only be able to obtain enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon in two to three years.

He added though that North Korea did not have "sophisticated" technology to produce nuclear warheads to be carried by its ballistic missiles.

Reports in Japan have said North Korea might have acquired technology to reduce the size of nuclear weapons so they can be mounted on ballistic missiles.

[squidly]

Where the hell would they test it?

[MediaMole]

Where the hell would they test it?

Tokyo?Seoul?

[OpusatFR]

Oh this will just make China ticked. They were ticked when NK admitted they had nukes. Testing one will really cause them to jerk the chain.

[The Great RJ]

Maybe Hans Blix should be invited to the test. I'm sure after seeing the flash he would say he wasn't sure that NK had a nuclear weapons program.

[templar]

Where the hell would they test it?

LA?, D.C.?

More likely in some underground location in the mountains or near the DMZ. I doubt that they actually have one. But if they do, they need to test it to prove it. I'll believe they have one when I see them test one.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

Maybe we can test a Hydrogen bomb, right after NK's test.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

They'd probably test it as close to China's border as they could. Nothing like impressing your parents...

[evad]

Where the hell would they test it?

How about Pyongyang?

[Calvin Locke]

With any luck, maybe their test will bear a striking similarity to that Soviet rocket test that went off, not only
quite wrongly, but ahead of schedule. A lot of the VIPs, scientists and engineers were either killed outright, or
later, from the caustic rocket fuel burns.

[PatrioticAmerican]

May I suggest they test it on Viet Nam??

[shaggy eel]

,,, they've got old scores to settle with Japan and that's a short hop. If they were to produce six to ten warheads, at least one would have Japan's name on it.

[Gerfang]

Joseph Stalin had the atom bomb. He never used it. Mutual Assured Destruction worked once. It can work again.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Yep. The Japs might want to consider apologizing for past aggressions and making serious amends.

[fiftymegaton]

Or reveal their own arsenal of nuclear weapons.....it's probably a lot farther along than North Korea's.

[jimkress]

Go ahead, make my day. Call NK's bluff. They're all talk and no bite.

[blam]

"The more I talked to my friends, the more I realise that it is possible for North Korea to have a nuclear weapon by December. It is possible they'll have a test by December. There is nothing to stop North Korea from doing this."

I expect someone will think of something, maybe, JDAM's!

[10mm]

Mutual Assured Destruction worked once. It can work again.

MAD only works if both sides wish to live. What happens when the North Koreans give the A-bomb to the Islamokazes? They can't wait to die, taking us with them. No, the North Koreans must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

[blam]

"Go ahead, make my day. Call NK's bluff. They're all talk and no bite."

They'll burn out our stomachs. (Aren't they the ones who said that?)

[sushiman]

" If they were to produce six to ten warheads, at least one would have Japan's name on it."

Afraid you are right , and here I sit only 90 minutes from Nagasaki in Kumamoto ...

[ladyinred]

LA?