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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (173324)	8/13/2003 8:15:37 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574491

There is tons of evidence to support that they have a working program. Your idea seems to be to imply that they started working on it after the state of the union address, and then using that dubious "fact" to blame Bush rather then the North Koreans. It is solidly established that the North Korean where working on enriching uranium before they went ahead and reactivated the reactor. If it did start after Bush's speech NK is just as much in violation of the agreements as if it started years before. In any case the available evidence suggest it did start before the speech. _______ "US knew of N-plan for two years By Doug Struck and Glenn Kessler in Seoul October 21 2002 The United States received evidence of uranium enrichment efforts in North Korea as early as two years ago, but only recently decided to confront Pyongyang there about it, sources in the US and Asia say. At first the evidence was faint and circumstantial. But it accumulated to the point that by August this year US officials felt the case was compelling and was grounds for cutting off talks aimed at improving relations with the isolated state. " smh.com.au "There are various U.S. government sources that provide clues as to when North Korea began its uranium-enrichment program, but disagreement among the sources makes it difficult to determine the exact start of the program. Most information, however, indicates it began between 1997 and 1999. Armitage has provided the earliest estimate of the program’s origin, testifying February 4 that the U.S. government noticed “some anomalies in [North Korean] procurement patterns” starting in 1994. Similarly, Secretary of State Colin Powell stated during a March 26 hearing before the House Appropriations Committee that North Korea started the program to enrich uranium “before the ink was dry” on the 1994 Agreed Framework. A March 17 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report states that the uranium-enrichment program “appears to date from [the end of] 1995,” although it does not cite a source or provide further detail. John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, stated in an April 15 interview with Arms Control Today that the program “goes back to about 1998…[but] it may go back earlier than that.” Powell described a similar, although less precise, timeline in a series of television interviews on December 29, 2002. On NBC’s Meet the Press, he said the program began “four or five years ago, if not earlier.” Contrary to his later comment that North Korea began the program around the time the Agreed Framework was signed, he said on ABC’s This Week that North Korea started the program “in 1998 and 1999.” The November CIA report to Congress indicates that “North Korea embarked on the effort to develop a centrifuge-based uranium enrichment program about two years ago.” " armscontrol.org "Back in 1994, facing a similar threat of the North going nuclear, the Clinton administration cut a deal called the Agreed Framework. North Korea promised to put its nuclear program on hold and act nice, and the United States said it would reward this good behavior by supplying fuel oil and a pair of safe light-water nuclear reactors, and by moving to normalize relations. The deal was patchy and short on verification, but it probably avoided a war with North Korea. And it worked, up to a point. The North Koreans did lock up their precious plutonium at the Yongbyon reactor. But they also started a secret uranium enrichment program and tested a new long-range missile over Japan. The Clintonites, afraid they would be accused of appeasing an awful regime and half-convinced that the regime would collapse anyway, dithered and dawdled on America's end of the bargain. So the Bush administration inherited a mess." iht.com " The Bush administration, unlike its predecessor, was even less sympathetic to the economic and humanitarian catastrophe that the DPRK has been facing. In his State of the Union address early this year, Bush included North Korea along with Iraq and Iran in the so-called "axis of evil" group. Now, American officials allege that Pyongyang had been pursuing a parallel weapons development programme using a secret uranium enrichment facility. American intelligence officials say that clandestine help for the North's nuclear programme was being given by Islamabad. They say that from the early 1990s, Islamabad has been supplying North Korea gas centrifuges used to create weapons grade uranium as part of a barter deal under which Pyongyang supplied missiles to Pakistan. U.S. officials say that China and Russia too had a role to play in the North's nuclear programme. According to U.S. officials, the clandestine trade between Islamabad and Pyongyang started in 1997 and continued after General Pervez Musharraf grabbed power two years later. Reports appearing in the U.S. media claim that front companies established by Abdul Qadir Khan, "the father of the Pakistani bomb", were responsible for the selling of nuclear gear and materiel to North Korea. American officials imply that the relationship continued after President Bush included North Korea in the "axis of evil" category. hinduonnet.com Pakistan gave technology to North Korea - NYT ADVERTISEMENT NEW YORK (Reuters) - American officials have concluded that Pakistan was a major supplier of equipment for North Korea's clandestine nuclear weapons program, The New York Times reported in its online edition late on Thursday. Pakistan provided North Korea with equipment, which may include gas centrifuges used to create weapons-grade uranium, as part of a deal made in the late 1990s, the paper said, citing current and former senior American officials. In return, North Korea supplied Pakistan with missiles it could use to counter India's nuclear arsenal, the Times quoted officials as saying. North Korea admitted on Wednesday that it has had a uranium enrichment program for years, in defiance of a 1994 Agreed Framework under which it promised to freeze its work on nuclear weapons. in.news.yahoo.com "In 1999, a congressionally commissioned report on North Korea stated, "There is significant evidence that undeclared nuclear weapons activity continues, including efforts to acquire uranium enrichment technologies." And CIA reports prior to 1999 said that in all probability North Korea had already developed at least two nuclear weapons." usainreview.com Also see newsmax.com Tim