N. Korea: First steps

Korean Nukes: Don’t Get Giddy, (New York Post)…Peter Brookes, June 27, 2008

NORTH Korea gave the world some good news this week – finally handing over a declaration about its nuclear program and promising to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility. But don’t break out the best bubbly just yet.

These moves are only a first step in what is likely to be a drawn-out, slippery, pot-hole-filled road in a (possibly futile) attempt to roll back Kim Jong Il’s membership in the nuclear-weapons club.

But a welcome initial step. Pyongyang is six months late in handing over what’s supposed to be a complete and correct accounting of its nuclear programs – and you can bet we’re not going to get anything close to the Full Monty.

* It won’t have anything about the regime’s clandestine, uranium-based nuclear-weapons program.

* The declaration also won’t have any info on the regime’s nuclear-proliferation activities, such as its work with Damascus on a nuclear reactor at al Kibar in northern Syria (the one targeted in last September’s Israeli air raid).

* Finally, it won’t have the scoop on the size of the North Korean nuclear-weapons arsenal.