Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week said the Bush administration has obtained recent information about North Korea’s covert uranium enrichment program, which Pyongyang continues to deny exists. North Korea is known to have had a plutonium program and to have sold nuclear technology to Syria.North Korea also “pursued a uranium enrichment program,” Rice said during a speech to the Heritage Foundation on June 18. “But we do not know its full extent or exactly what this effort has yielded.
“As we've gotten deeper into the process, we've been troubled by additional information about North Korea's uranium enrichment capability, and this information has reaffirmed skepticism about dealing with North Korea,” Rice said in the most recent official expression of U.S. concern about Pyongyang's uranium program.
“North Korea will soon give its declaration of nuclear programs to China, the chair of the denuclearization working group,” Rice said. “And President Bush would then notify Congress of our intention to remove North Korea from the state sponsors of terrorism list and to cease the application of Trading With the Enemy Act.”
| Even though they're keeping their uranium program? ... |
Rice said North Korea has cheated on its nuclear accord in the past. “We will hold North Korea accountable. We will reimpose any applicable sanction that we have waived, and we will add new ones,” she said.
| The Norks need hold out to January and hope that Obama wins ... |