North Korea: Harvesting Nuclear Fuel?
Cato Daily Dispatch for April 18, 2005
Cato Daily Dispatch for April 18, 2005
North Korea: Harvesting Nuclear Fuel?
"The suspected shutdown of a reactor at North Korea's main nuclear weapons complex has raised concern at the White House that the country could be preparing to make good on its recent threat to harvest a new load of nuclear fuel, potentially increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal," according to the New York Times.
"While there is no way to know with any certainty why the reactor might have been shut down, it has been North Korea's main means of obtaining plutonium for weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency has told Congress it estimates that in the last two years the country turned a stockpile of spent fuel from the same reactor into enough bomb-grade material for more than six nuclear weapons."
In "Forcing North Korea's Hand," Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for Cato's defense and foreign policy studies, writes: "Pyongyang has said that it wants a binding non-aggression pact from the United States as well as normalized diplomatic and economic relations. The Bush administration should offer all three concessions. In exchange, however, the United States should continue to insist on a complete, verifiable, and irreversible end to North Korea's nuclear program.
"That is the proper goal, but the devil is in the details. Achieving such a result would require on-demand international inspections of any suspect site in North Korea (not just those that Pyongyang has admitted to being part of its nuclear program). It would also require the dismantling of all existing nuclear weapons and their removal from North Korean territory. The same standard would be needed with regard to all plutonium and highly enriched uranium stocks so that the North could not reactivate its program at a later date."
Greg Garner, editor, ggarner@cato.org
Cato Daily Dispatch for April 18, 2005
North Korea: Harvesting Nuclear Fuel?
"The suspected shutdown of a reactor at North Korea's main nuclear weapons complex has raised concern at the White House that the country could be preparing to make good on its recent threat to harvest a new load of nuclear fuel, potentially increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal," according to the New York Times.
"While there is no way to know with any certainty why the reactor might have been shut down, it has been North Korea's main means of obtaining plutonium for weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency has told Congress it estimates that in the last two years the country turned a stockpile of spent fuel from the same reactor into enough bomb-grade material for more than six nuclear weapons."
In "Forcing North Korea's Hand," Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for Cato's defense and foreign policy studies, writes: "Pyongyang has said that it wants a binding non-aggression pact from the United States as well as normalized diplomatic and economic relations. The Bush administration should offer all three concessions. In exchange, however, the United States should continue to insist on a complete, verifiable, and irreversible end to North Korea's nuclear program.
"That is the proper goal, but the devil is in the details. Achieving such a result would require on-demand international inspections of any suspect site in North Korea (not just those that Pyongyang has admitted to being part of its nuclear program). It would also require the dismantling of all existing nuclear weapons and their removal from North Korean territory. The same standard would be needed with regard to all plutonium and highly enriched uranium stocks so that the North could not reactivate its program at a later date."
Greg Garner, editor, ggarner@cato.org
posted by Greta Jane at Monday, April 18, 2005
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