Archive for the 'Nuclear Proliferation' Category

North Korea Provides Documents: It’s Not Enough

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

North Korea has turned over thousands of pages of documentation for its plutonium-based nuclear program:
North Korea handed over more than 18,000 pages of nuclear weapons documents to a U.S. diplomat visiting Pyongyang on Thursday that will help verify its plutonium holdings, senior U.S. officials said.
[…]
“We will see if these documents will play a […]

For the Record: The 1994 Agreed Framework Prohibited North Korea’s Uranium Enrichment Program

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

A few times I have come across the assertion that the 1994 Agreed Framework did not prohibit North Korea’s uranium enrichment program, and that document did not even include the word “uranium,” as an argument for why the U.S. was responsible for the disintegration of the Agreed Framework. However, that is a myth […]

North Korea Offers Yongbyon Records Back to 1990

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Rather than belligerent insults using archaic English following the Bush administration’s presentation of rather convincing evidence that North Korea was proliferating nuclear technology to Syria, North Korea is offering something to “complement” the declaration of nuclear programs called for in the 13 February 2007 deal:
North Korea has tentatively agreed to give the United […]

North Korea-Syria: Should be Oct 2002 Deja Vu, But Isn’t

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

During a meeting in P’yŏngyang on 04 October 2002, North Korean Deputy Foreign Minster Kang Seok-Ju admitted to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly that North Korea had a uranium enrichment program. That was the public beginning of the end of the 1994 Agreed Framework.
Now the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has revealed […]

North Korea-Syria: Banco Delta Asia Deja Vu

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

A joint statement (DOC) was issued at the conclusion of the fourth round of Six-Party Talks in September, 2005 that “reaffirmed that the goal of the Six-Party Talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.” It was hailed, by most, as a great breakthrough in coaxing North Korea to […]

Six-Party Talks: Nine Lives are for Sissies

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

After a few weeks of false tensions manufactured by North Korea (see news links below), some sort of addition to existing agreements may be in the works:
The U.S. and North Korea on Tuesday reached tentative agreement on the declaration of the North’s nuclear programs. . . Chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill. . […]

AQ Khan Implies Govt Had Knowledge of Nuclear Proliferation

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Via AFP: “[Abdul Qadeer] Khan, who has been under effective house arrest since confessing on television in 2004 to running a proliferation network, [said] ‘I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself…’ ” […]

The North Korea-Syria Nuclear Connection, Again

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Another rumor in the saga, per the Asahi Shimbun:
An Israeli airstrike against Syria last September targeted a nuclear-related facility that was under construction with technical assistance from North Korea, according to Israel’s prime minister.
Japanese government sources said over the weekend that the Israeli leader, Ehud Olmert, briefed Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda about the […]

New Sheriff in Seoul/Fracture in Pyongyang?

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

North Korea expelled 11 South Korean officials from the Kaesong Industrial Zone in response to rising criticism of its regime and human rights record from the new South Korean administratin of Lee Myung-Bak:
For a month, the new president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, has been warning North Korea to clean up its act on […]

North Korea Reneges, Again: Broken Window Theory Revisited

Monday, February 18th, 2008

If ever there was a time to drop the hammer on North Korea for habitually reneging on nuclear deals, now would be the time:
Speaking to reporters in Beijing Saturday, [Sigfried Hecker] said North Korean officials have told him they will not provide a full declaration of the country’s nuclear programs until other countries provide […]