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S Korea warns of regional arms race
The outgoing South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, gave warning yesterday that his country and Japan may join a nuclear arms race if North Korea declares itself the latest member of the atomic weapons club. Both have the technological prowess and abundant supplies of plutonium to build huge nuclear arsenals which would destabilise north-east Asia, which borders on China and Russia. "Hello, Jiang? This is Kim. "No, the other one. "Just wanted to let you know that we're planning on reprocessing some plutonium to make some warheads. "No, the other one. "We figure that we can make oh, a dozen or so in the next year. We're working with our good friend Junichiro on this. "No, the other one." The first steps in an arms race were apparent yesterday in reports that Japan will begin testing an anti-ballistic-missile system it has been developing with the United States. "Jiang, we got some plans on building an ABM system. That isn't going to bother you by any chance, is it?" The fear is that North Korea will accelerate the trend by launching a prototype long-range missile, or even declaring itself a nuclear power. According to the CIA, it already has enough plutonium to make two bombs, and with the resumption of full-scale operations at the Yongbyon reactor earlier this month it will soon be producing more fissile material. The suspicion that it will be used for weapons has grown since early January, when Pyongyang announced its withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty
"Listen, Jiang, you really ought to hear the guys at the office talk about this. We had a rip-roaring discussion on megaton yields the other day ... No, the other one." Mr Kim won the 2000 Nobel peace prize for his attempts to bring peace between his country and North Korea and end the last cold war conflict. Best prize money could buy. South Korea is not a nuclear power, though it was on the verge of building an atomic bomb in 1978 when Washington intervened. "Won't take us that long, Jiang, we got the blueprints 'round here somewheres." The US says it removed all of its own land-based nuclear weapons from the peninsula in 1991. In Japan, where memories of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still strong, the government has long been a strong advocate of nuclear non-proliferation. But in recent years senior politicians have warned that this position is not written in stone. Last April Ichiro Ozawa, one of the most influential Japanese politicians of recent years, boasted that his country had the technology and the plutonium to build several thousand nuclear warheads. "Hey Jiang, I got this crazy friend, he's talking all kinds of goofy shit about warheads. "Yes, I know the other one has crazy friends, too, but my crazy friends are also kinda rich, ya know?" US senators have also spoken out in favour of a nuclear Japan allied with Washington to counter-balance a nuclear North Korea allied with China. "And my favorite uncle, man is he ever crazy!" Mr Kim's comments will put pressure on China to use what influence it has in Pyongyang to ease the nuclear crisis. But it is far from clear that Beijing can pull the strings in North Korea.
"My crazy friends gave up drinkin' rice hootch an' everything. They look real clear-eyed and sober these days, Jiang." Tokyo hesitated about field tests for fear of upsetting China, which fears US plans to build an Asian missile defence shield which would cover Taiwan, but North Korea's recent actions appear to have won over the doubters. "Listen, Jiang, if you ever see Kim â no, the other one â you might wanna slap him upside the head and talk some sense into him. Lissen, I gotta go, I'm briefing the new guy on plutonium reprocessing. Bye!" Posted by: Steve White 2003-02-18 |
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