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N. Korea has up to 6 nuclear weapons: Clinton
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has up to six nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said. In a Friday speech at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, Clinton said "we know" that North Korea "has somewhere between one and six nuclear weapons," the second time in as many weeks that she has recognized that North Korea has nuclear weapons.While explaining the Obama administration's nuclear policy late last month, the top U.S. diplomat depicted North Korea as a country "that already has nuclear weapons," and Iran as one that is "clearly seeking nuclear weapons," although the U.S. government's official position is not to recognize the North as a nuclear weapons state. North Korea, which conducted its second nuclear test in May last year, is widely believed to possess several nuclear warheads, with some analysts saying it has already developed the technology to mount the warheads on long-range missiles. The North's second nuclear test is widely seen as having demonstrated its nuclear capability, unlike the previous one, considered a partial failure. North Korea said late last year that it has "entered the final stage" of enriching uranium as an alternative way to produce nuclear weapons. It had been producing weapons-grade plutonium at its sole operating reactor in Yongbyon, north of its capital, Pyongyang. North Korea is also suspected of having secured enough plutonium for many more nuclear weapons from former Soviet republics after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the World Nuclear Stockpile Report, written by Hans Kristensen of the FAS and Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council in September, said North Korea appears to have 10 nuclear weapons, although it added, "There is no publicly available evidence that North Korea has operationalized its nuclear weapons capability." Clinton, meanwhile, told students at the University of Louisville that she hopes the Obama administration's new nuclear policy will help quell the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. "I'm not suggesting that a move by the United States and Russia to reduce our nuclear stockpiles will convince Iran or North Korea to change their behavior," she said. However, she added that China, which wields veto power in the U.N. Security Council and has a great leverage on North Korea and Iran, will "become more willing to engage with us" on North Korea and Iran. Why would they do that? Best thing for the Chinese is to keep doing what they're doing now, which is not cooperating with us ... "I know from firsthand experience that this START treaty has left little room for some nations to hide," Clinton said. "They are finding it more and more difficult to make the case that they don't have their own responsibilities. I believe the new START treaty does put us in a better position to strengthen the nonproliferation regime when parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty meet together in May." That's just idiocy. The Norks aren't party to the new START treaty and they can continue to do as they wish. It's not like anyone's going to stop them. Posted by: Steve White 2010-04-11 |
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