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Special Report
Surprise: North Korea Is Enriching Uranium!
The DPRK may have greater nuclear capabilities than previously thought.
North Korea is nothing if not predictable. It has unveiled a new nuclear enrichment plant. The U.S. and its allies are now scrambling to respond.
Surely the latest development in the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea surprises no one.
If the issue weren’t so serious, it would be a comedy routine. The Obama administration came into office hoping to put the North on the back policy burner. Last year Pyongyang staged another nuclear test to remind America that it was still around.
The Republic of Korea’s conservative government reversed the “Sunshine Policy” of its predecessors, cutting off most subsidies for the DPRK. In March the North sank a South Korean warship. Supposedly tough-minded ROK President Lee Myung-bak did little more than whine. Rather than closing the Kaesong industrial development, which provides North Korea with much-needed hard currency, Seoul demanded an apology.
Apparently unable to resist the Sirens’ call for negotiations, President Lee recently announced that an apology was no longer necessary. All Pyongyang had to do was “show sincerity toward the Republic of Korea and to assume responsibility” for the sinking.
After sending an aircraft carrier to demonstrate its solidarity with the South, the Obama administration also began pressing for resumption of the Six-Party Talks, the so-far spectacularly unsuccessful nuclear negotiations. President Barack Obama said all that was necessary was for the DPRK to demonstrate “seriousness of purpose.”
Well, seriousness of purpose was demonstrated by Pyongyang, only the wrong kind.
The North recently began construction on a new light water nuclear reactor, apparently to replace the one previously decommissioned at Yongbyon. That was bad news, but remained only a future threat. More ominously, however, it now appears that North Korea is engaged in uranium enrichment.
The North invited Stanford University Professor Siegfried S. Hecker to visit its newest uranium enrichment facility in Yongbyon. Hecker found a modern operation with 2000 centrifuges, apparently ready for business. He said the plant looked to be directed at nuclear power, but “the uranium enrichment facilities could be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium (HEU) bomb fuel.”
While the project’s capabilities may not meet the North Koreans’ claims, the facility was built quickly, since April 2009, when inspectors were last on site, and kept secret. This suggests that the DPRK may have greater nuclear capabilities than previously thought.
The Obama administration reacted with ill-disguised shock. An administration spokesman stated that the North’s behavior is “yet another provocative act of defiance.” Who would have imagined? The North Koreans defiant! So the State Department deployed its heaviest diplomatic artillery, sending a delegation to Asia to “begin to coordinate on a response to this news.” Undoubtedly “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il is hiding in his underground bunker, fearful for his life.
The latest crisis is merely the latest rerun of an earlier show. The North has trashed previous agreements. The regime has never demonstrated a serious commitment to abandon weapons which have taken so much effort and expense to develop. And the West has never offered the North benefits anywhere close to the obvious gains for the North from becoming a nuclear state.
First is defense against any attempt at regime change. Pyongyang surely has noticed that the U.S. routinely bombs and invades non-nuclear powers, such as Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Serbia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Washington does not similarly treat nuclear powers.
Second, no one would pay the slightest attention to North Korea absent its nuclear program. The country is an impoverished wreck; its people suffer persistent malnutrition and sometimes starve, often to death. North Koreans are better at trading drugs and counterfeiting dollars than at engaging in commerce. Kim Jong-il ends up on the front pages of the world’s newspapers only when he makes nuclear threats.
Third, nuclear threats are about all he has to try to extort money from his neighbors. He blusters at the South and rages against Japan. The People’s Republic of China he warns of collapse and chaos, followed by reunification with America’s ally, South Korea. Regional worries about an implosion of the DPRK are magnified by Pyongyang’s possession of nuclear weapons.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author and editor of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (25) | Leave a comment
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Eric Cartman| 11.22.10 @ 6:43AM
I'm waiting. Have you come to any conclusions about my post being spam or not? Ahem. Is your moderator moonlighting as a TSA agent?
Eric Cartman| 11.22.10 @ 9:55AM
AHEM! I'm waiting for my non-spam comment to be published by your TSA Agent/Moderator. Hello! McFly!
Eric Cartman| 11.22.10 @ 12:37PM
There have always been subtle hints:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie......m_hair.jpg
coal carrier| 11.22.10 @ 7:05AM
How can this be? Obama, Biden, Clinton, Albright, Holbrooke and the rest of the progressive left assured us that talking would bring North Korea to their senses. Now they are all shocked at the latest news.
Ladies and gentlemen if we do not rid ourselves of these lightweights, our nation is doomed.
Louis Jenkins| 11.22.10 @ 8:10AM
I have previously posted about N. Korea's modernization of war waging capabilities. This is another example of the Dog Eater's underhandedness seen as justification in his own eyes. Make no mistake, N. Korea is on the track to be reckoned with, one way or another. Yes, their economy is a farce, and the peasants eat dirt to be full, but when it comes to making war the Dog Eater will not be denied. And Obama feints surprise?
Chuck| 11.22.10 @ 8:43AM
Truman should have used uranium on Pyongyang 60 years ago now Pyongyang will most certainly use it on us.
Old Soldier| 11.22.10 @ 9:44AM
This is one of those tests that Biden talked about during the 2008 election. The tests that we knew Obama will fail miserably.
Excuse my English, but Obama does not have the balls for this job.
Eric Cartman| 11.22.10 @ 12:52PM
Maybe that's what the TSA is looking for:-)
Loshooligan| 11.22.10 @ 10:04AM
Send another carrier group to the South Pacific along with anything else our Allies can help send. Then watch the Chinese get real sweaty over their personal space being invaded. China will want the US and friends out of the South Pacific as soon as possible. Force the Chinese’s hand and make them deal with North Korea. We can dangle the carrot of leaving the area once the North Korean government has been removed and North and South united.
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.22.10 @ 10:09AM
My concern,
is that North Korea is so isolated that for foreign exchange it will SELL nukes to every whacko terrorist group on earth.
Those nukes can be bought with drug money or oil money.
Whew!
Loshooligan| 11.22.10 @ 10:36AM
How long will it be before Obama starts buying up the North Korean nukes like some kind of TARP program?
Neo| 11.22.10 @ 10:10AM
It will be interesting to see how Obama lays the blame for an enrichment factory, that wasn't there in April 2009, on George W. Bush, considering it was built long after Bush had retired to his ranch.
Mind you, I'm not saying he won't try.
Stan redmond| 11.22.10 @ 10:43AM
This sounds like a job for Madeline Albright [sp?] with a great big 동. 고쳐놓다; 다시 설정하다; 계량기를 영으로 돌려놓다 button (HEY, I copied and pasted this from an online translator just like Hillary Clinton use to translate "RESET" in to Russian).
Madeline should also be wearing a teddy for seducing the dear leader.
John Navratil| 11.22.10 @ 11:12AM
The vision is too horrible!
Charles Martel| 11.22.10 @ 10:11PM
Hillary's "reset" button was not only an embarrassing mistranslation: it wasn't even written in the Cyrillic alphabet. She might as well have taken a page from the Carter administration and handed her Russian counterpart something printed in Polish.
+++
ADM| 11.22.10 @ 1:05PM
Sooner or later we're going to have to disabuse wannabe nuclear states of their belief that possessing nuclear weapons offers immunity from an attack. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to make example of a small nuclear state (e.g. North Korea) despite all the local collateral damage that will occur. We can't continue to give the impression that we'll only fight with weaker adversaries. Otherwise, the incentives for proliferation will continue to increase and states like North Korea, who need foreign capital, will simply spread the technology. Whether proliferation limits our options against these small nuclear states or not, sooner or later some of these powers are going to use nukes on one another. And, any ambiguous first-use situation has the potential to create an even bigger tragedy. In this context, we should remember that during the Cold War, despite massive intelligence operations and heavy surveillance, there was much that we didn't see in or understand about the USSR. Our intelligence services have a spotty record at best. The idea that we'd be able to manage a global environment with lots more nuclear powers is questionable at best. Better to take action now, even if it means using our nukes, than to wait for this to explode when we least want or expect it.
SpiralArchitect| 11.22.10 @ 4:06PM
The notion of USA not taking on nations with nuclear arms is not entirely true.
The stated reason for going into Iraq was WMD's
- and not just the ones used against the kurds...
Obviously, no nukes were located. Yet, the fact remains that we went into a nation that we believed ( publicly at least) possesed WMD's.
The idea of promting China to push a little bit is a nice one, if not a little risky. That is, I would hate to lose a carrier group to substanciate the claims of N. Korea's possesion of nukes.
Something must be done and, in all likely hood, the wrong thing ( including nothing) will be done - B.O's specialty. >:(
LeoInTheWoods| 11.22.10 @ 4:23PM
"Millions for defense, sir, but not one cent for tribute!"
Why should we buy off these belligerents?
Thom| 11.22.10 @ 5:05PM
The only thing surprising here is that we continued to be surprised. North Korea has been an economic basket case for about 60 years and is going to collapse any day now……
North Korea serves a useful function as a proxy for the Communist Chinese. A unified Korea with a western government and weapons systems is not on China’s wish list. Look at a map. It is not going to happen short of a change of management in China. The key to Korea is and has always been China not the puppet King in North Korea.
The North has gotten away with an act of war. Next time it will be a little more involved. These people have spent 60 years preparing for the next war and the nuclear option is primarily meant to preserve the kingdom at this point should a conventional thrust south not accomplish its goals.
We knew a lot more about Iraq in 2003 than we’ll ever know about North Korea. They’ve been burying stuff since the end of the war in 1952. We assume China and Russia haven’t been modernizing them by covert means. The Israelis got caught by vastly improved Arab forces in 1973 vs. what they had to deal with in 1967. Much about what we know about the North is what they allow us to see. Their chances of success in a convention attack are about the same as Japan had before 8:30 AM December 7th, 1941.
Nothing to worry about, they are going to collapse any day now…..
laptop_repairs_manchester | 12.3.10 @ 4:12AM
China will step in before this goes to far