//riot of disorder::

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea apparently has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, which would be an indication that the communist country intends to produce nuclear weapons, a senior Bush administration official said Saturday.

Air samples taken in the vicinity of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant indicate the presence of Krypton-85 , intelligence experts said, signifying that the reprocessing is under way.

Sources said this month that American surveillance satellites identified a North Korean site about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of the Yongbyon complex that "may or may not" be a testing facility for the development of a nuclear weapon small enough to be put atop a missile.

The testing appeared to involve conventional explosives designed to simulate triggers for such small nuclear weapons, the sources said.

Experts said that North Korea was believed to have about 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods. Those rods, if successfully reprocessed, could contain enough plutonium to produce between six and 12 nuclear weapons -- some within a matter of months.

U.S. intelligence has concluded that North Korea has at least one and perhaps as many as three nuclear weapons.

South Korea's intelligence agency said this week it believed the North Koreans had reprocessed "a small portion" of its estimated supply of fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear facility.

The revelation came in a report from the head of the South Korean National Intelligence Service to lawmakers in the country's National Assembly.

The report also said North Korea had tested devices believed to be high explosives used to trigger a nuclear blast -- a key component in the construction of a working nuclear bomb.

The spent fuel rods were part of a plutonium-based nuclear weapons program that was frozen under a 1994 nuclear agreement between North Korea and the United States.

That deal unraveled this year after the United States accused North Korea of continuing with a covert plan to enrich weapons-grade uranium for use in bombs.

Discuss.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapc...ear/index.html

John Hancock

Hey Guy,

There's alot of BULLSHIT in this article just done with work will try to supply references and qualifications, presently the old lady is appealing -later.

John Hancock
__________________
"Fascism,should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini

jman0904

7.6mm of metal would provide a temporary solution.

id.s

Yay Korea. Woo-hoo. Post slutters -free post.

sweep

I remember a televised interview with one of the chief ministers in charge of power in Korea. As the interview progressed, the lights began to flicker.

go figure