[USFK Forums] U.S. Intelligence 'Not Sure' Pyongyang Has Nukes [Chosun]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, March 2, 2006

U.S. Intelligence 'Not Sure' Pyongyang Has Nukes

The Chosun Ilbo, Updated Mar.1,2006 21:43 KST

The United States says it is not 100 percent sure whether North Korea has nuclear weapons but believes the communist regime continued processing plutonium from its Yongbyon reactor. The acknowledgment comes a year after North Korea officially announced it has nuclear arms.

At a hearing by the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said Pyongyang "probably" has nuclear arms, but he did not know this for a fact. Negroponte also declined to estimate the number of nuclear devices North Korea might have assembled. He only said there was potential for a number of weapons.

In 2002, the U.S. government said it believed North Korea had one and possibly two nuclear weapons. A year ago, Pyongyang officially announced it has nuclear arms although it produced no tangible evidence of this by testing a weapon.

Michael Maples, director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, also admitted there is no proof that Pyongyang has the bomb but said he believed the country is in the process of developing the missile capability to deliver a nuclear warhead. Maples said U.S. intelligence believes North Korea continues to produce plutonium from a 5 mw reactor in Yongbyon.

url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...603010010.html