North Korean nuclear reactor now operational(AXIS OF EVIL ALERT)

Fox News | 12/25/02

[Husker24]

Good question.

[onedoug]

When W is through celebrating Kwanza, these units will likely have be taken out.

[Darksheare]

They've done constant upkeep on the reactor.
They've planned to start it up again for awhile, and they were probably aware of other things prior .. I.e.. they were aware of the attacks on us. And supported them.
We have traced such things back monetarily to them, and Iraq as well as others.

So they've flipped the proverbial switch on at the reactor in an effort to try and keep us off of them. (Blackmail, in effect.)
They know they don't have too much time left before we have all the evidence we need.

[Husker24]

The North Korean military is like a giant Soviet military museum, I cant believe they still have 250 T-34's top of the line WWII tech.

[George from New England]

Anybody consider this turn of events as maybe a sign that Iraq has the bomb ready and fuel is all they need.

Could the timing be now as the shelf life of fuel and nuke components is short and they (Iraq) are ready!

[Sparta]

The North Korean military is good enough for the terrain of the Korean peninsula. Also, their infantry is armed with the usual excellent Soviet small arms. (AKM, PK, SKS, etc.)

[Sparta]

http://homepage.eircom.net/~steven/asia.htm

Another website with info about South Korean, Japanese, and other Asian militaries.

[Dog]

Its almost like the Axis of Evil had a conference call last month and agreed to help each other.

A fight in Korea would not be a cakewalk for us....it would be fighting from ridgeline to ridgeline.

Those 35,000+ Americans would become hostages until we could move enough assets into the region to take back the South.

And while we were dealing with this problem.... Saddam would be making mischief in his part of the sandbox.

[Monty22]

The United States is going to have to use tactical nuclear weapons in either Iraq or North Korea or both.. We simply have to get over our phobia of our best tool of war.

[per loin]

Time to chop the top off the North Korean beast.

[backhoe]

That "clinton legacy" just never stops giving... cross-link:

-The Atomic Genie- what we know about North Korea's Nuclear program--

[Orion78]

Its almost like the Axis of Evil had a conference call last month and agreed to help each other.

---

"The failure of US policy makers to comprehend the veiled aggressiveness and hostility towards the United States inherent in Sino-Russian strategy and the belief that the political and economic reforms in Russia and the partial introduction of capitalism in China have foreshadowed these countries' development into real democracies, have eroded the effectiveness of US policies in the foreign affairs, defence, intelligence and counter-intelligence fields. US policymakers have recklessly accepted the premise that Russia and China are no longer their enemies, but are rather potential allies and partners fully deserving of US support. Only countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea - which (ironically, in this context) work secretly with Russia and China - are still considered potential adversaries."

[AngrySpud]

Thank you Pakistan.

Here's hoping for a catastrophic accident that renders hundreds of square miles of North Korea uninhabitable for a century.

Do ya suppose the odds of an accident could be "encouraged" somehow?

[AmericanVictory]

Does anyone believe that this is not coordinated among those involved, including communist China, which sees itself as the victor so far?

[Orion78]

Yes, pretty much everybody I try to point it out to. Most dismiss Golitsyn's work as either "musty old documents" or "tin foil".

[Wonder Warthog]

"Here's hoping for a catastrophic accident that renders hundreds of square miles of North Korea uninhabitable for a century."

Well, only if you consider the impact of multiple "daisy cutters", fuel-air bombs, and bunker busters as an "accident".

[StoneColdTaxHater]

One thing we have left out of the North Korea situation. Their Godless, pinko fellow travelers in China. Any attack by us I fear ends up like the 1950's all over again. NK, maybe we could woop 'em, Add the PRC and we are in a world of hurt.

[Mensch]

N Korean Nuclear Arsenal

By Lee Wha Rang

The US-N Korea Geneva Nuclear Accord freezes N Korea's nuke "activities" in return for six billion-plus dollars in aids. N Korea's existing nuclear sites are not immediately affected. The accord does not address the "existing" nuclear devices. Its primary interest appears to be curtailing further expansion of nuke production in N Korea.

Nuke Sites

• Yongbyon 0.1 megawatts thermal (MWt) critical assembly - This small reactor is believed to be the first nuclear reactor in N Korea. It was provided by the Soviet and went into operation in early 1960s. Its primary function is isotope production.

• Yongbyon Reactor I - The construction of this natural uranium-graphite power reactor began in 1980 at Yongbyon, 100 km north of Pyongyang. It is based on a 1950 MAGNOX technology (graphite moderator, aluminum-magnesium clad natural uranium fuel , CO2 gas cooling). The reactor was completed in 1984 and it as was activated in February 1987 under Prof. Ha Kyong Won, a Korean physicist educated in US. After many startup problems, it was operating at 20-30 MW by 1990.

  N Korea removed about 30 lb. of plutonium from this reactor in 1988 and built two nuclear bombs. From 1989 to 1991, N Korea may have extracted additional 60 lb. of plutonium, enough for five nukes.

• Yongbyon Reactor II - A 50 MW MAGNOX-type reactor was started in 1984. N Korea built a military nuclear complex next to this reactor. This complex was completed in 1989 and the reactor was tentatively activated in 1992. This reactor alone is capable of producing enough plutonium for 10-12 nukes a year.

• Taechon Reactor I - The construction of a 200 MW MAGNOX-type reactor was started at Taechon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang in 1988 and it is expected to be completed in 1996.

• Taechon Reactor II - A 600-800 MW reactor is also underway at Taechon (completion possible by 1997). This reactor could produce 180-230 Kg of plutonium a year, enough for 30-40 nukes.

• Simpo Reactor I - This 635mw reactor is based on a German design. In May 1989, N Korea and Germany signed a comprehensive agreement on the transfer of "substantial" amounts of German nuclear technology and nuclear weapons materials, including enriched uranium, to Pyongyang. The transfer of the German nuclear know-how has continued via Iran, Libya Syria and Yugoslavia.

• Yongbyon Separation Plant - A plutonium separation facility ("Radiological Research Lab") was built at Yongbyon in 1987. This plant is capable of handling several hundreds of tons of fuel a year, enough to handle fuel from all of the reactors , some 33 lb. of plutonium annually.. The plutonium factory for the nuclear weapons is a single story building constructed on top the main plutonium reprocessing facility, deep underground. In 1993, N Korea completed a second plant, doubling its capacity for plutonium production.

About 70 lb. were believed to have been extracted from the reactors since 1991. In 1992, N Korea bought 120 lb. of plutonium from a former Soviet block country and may have produced 10 bombs. It is quite possible that N Korea has acquired additional nuclear material from the former Soviet republics.

Most intelligence sources, including Russian and Chinese, state that N Korea has close to 10 operational nuclear warheads for its missiles and two nuclear devices that can be carried by truck , boat or transport aircraft. N Korean warheads are of 50 KT class, weighing around 1,100 lb.

N Korean Missiles

N Korea has deployed over 300 Nodong-x (medum range - Japan and Okinawa) and close to a thousand Scud-B/C missiles (short range - S Korea) all of which can carry nuclear or chemical warheads. NoDong-1's have a range of 1,300km and NoDong-2's have a range of 1,500-2,000km. N Korea is believed to have a limited number of Taepodong-x ICBMs (long range - America) hidden in underground tunnels.

The Taepo Dong-2 ICBM has a maximum range of 6,200 miles. The US DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) estimates that the missile has a range of about 4,650 miles with large nuclear warheads and 6,200 miles with smaller warheads. At the extreme of 6,200 mil es, the missile could reach all major West Coast cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego,,,) and reach as far east as Chicago.

[Orion78]

I dunno how many times I have been told by the likes of Stavka2 that "I spent to much time in bomb shelters in the sixties" which only makes me laugh because I wasn't even alive then. I've even been told I am "trying to hate the Soviet Union back into existance".

All I'm trying to do is get people to think about it. Sure, maybe Golitsyn is wrong, (though every link on my homepage would suggest otherwise), but either way, should we really be letting our guard down? Should we really get rid of our nuclear arsenals and toss aside our missile defense plans? Should we really allow countries who were our enemy for 50-60 years join the organizations which protected us from them after only 10 years of "changing their ways"?

The news media goes on and on about how "Communism is dead" and "terrorism is the new threat", but people want so badly to believe we "won the Cold War" they don't look past just the threat of terrorism. Russia and China send money, weapons and resources to Iraq, Iran, Syria, and North Korea, which in turn send the same to terrorist groups like Hizzbolah and the PLO. These terrorist groups then go out and perpetrate the most heinous of crimes against humanity. Sure, Russia and China issue statements condemning it, but under the surface of smiles and diplomatic pleasantries, they continue to provide the means for terrorists to persue their "Jihad" against America and the Western world.

People have told me Russia couldn't/wouldn't have anything to do with Islam but it only reminds me of what Lenin said about "useful idiots" who could be exploited up to the hilt in the Communist interest.

Am I right? Is Golitsyn right? Only time will tell for sure because until it comes to pass there is no "smoking gun", but shouldn't we as Americans, the protectors of Life, Liberty and Happiness, always keep our guard up? Should we not always keep glancing over our shoulder, ever vigilant in our watch? For if we don't have the foresight to see our enemy plotting against us and maintain the capacity to defend that which is truthful and self-evident from those who would take it from us, who on this Earth will?

[Colonel Jim]

Perhaps it was dormant not down.