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U.S. Suspects North Korea Moved Ahead on Weapons
After assuring the White House for months that North Korea had not begun producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, American intelligence officials changed their assessment last month, concluding that the country may have produced relatively small amounts, according to senior administration and intelligence officials. The new assessment was delivered to the White House in mid-April, after President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, ordered a review of the intelligence. A little more than a week later, North Korean officials, meeting with the United States in Beijing, boasted that they had already turned 8,000 spent nuclear-fuel rods into weapons-grade material, and strongly hinted they would export it unless they struck a deal with the United States.Intelligence officials say they believe that the North Korean claim was an exaggeration, intended to extract concessions from Mr. Bush, who said late last month he would not give in to what he has termed "blackmail." But his aides remain divided about what blend of incentives and threats to use in dealing with the government of Kim Jong Il. Mr. Bush's top foreign policy advisers met today to review their next steps on North Korea, with some officials at the Pentagon urging that Mr. Bush move vigorously to intercept missiles and illicit drugs being shipped out of the country. Those exports create much of the hard currency that the North uses to finance its nuclear program. At the same time, officials say they are likely to engage in a second round of talks with North Korea. That is partly to satisfy China, which has become a major player in pressuring the North to dismantle its nuclear facilities. The changed assessment reflects the inexact nature of intelligence about North Korea. But the possibility that the North is already reprocessing nuclear material â and thus could soon begin producing weapons beyond the two the C.I.A. believes it manufactured more than a decade ago â is bound to change the tenor of Mr. Bush's meetings in the next two weeks with the leaders of South Korea and Japan. "It means we don't have forever to solve this problem," one senior American official said. (con't see link) Posted by: Anonymous 2003-05-08 |
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