N Korea Plans More Plutonium For Nuclear Arms, page 1

An American Scholar on North Korea who has been given access to that countries nuclear arms program says that N Korea will be able to produce 3 to 6 nuclear devices within a relatively short period of time. Selig Harrison, who just recently arrived in Bejing after a visit to Pyonyang, claims that N Korea will be ready to unload nuclear power rods from one of their nuclear reactors within 3 months and will use them to obtain more plutonium.

www.iht.com
BEIJING, North Korea is planning to remove fuel rods at its Yongbyon reactor within the next three months in what would be a significant boost to its nuclear weapons capability, an American scholar said Saturday.

During a meeting this past week in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, Selig Harrison said Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan told him that North Korea would unload the rods "beginning this fall, and no later than the end of the year."

The Yongbyon reactor has been at the center of U.S. concerns about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The reactor's spent fuel rods can be mined for plutonium, which can then be used to construct nuclear bombs.

North Korea last removed fuel rods at the facility in June 2005 and was not due to do so again until June 2007, Harrison told reporters in Beijing shortly after arriving from a four-day stay in North Korea.

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North Korea claims that it is advancing with it's nuclear arms program as an incentive for the US to meet with N Korea billaterally and that it will not ease up on those plans unless and untill the US eases up on it's financial sanctions on PyongYang. I guess one excuse is as good as another; in any event, it goes to show that we can expect them to do whatever they want to, regardless of any concessions by the rest of the world.

Related News Links:
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