Category: Intl Security

Caught on Tape: N. Koreans at Syrian Reactor

ARTICLE: N. Koreans Taped At Syrian Reactor
(Washington Post)…Robin Wright, April 24, 2008
Pg. 1

A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.

Israel bombed the suspected nuclear facility in Syria on Sept 6. N.Korea has not admitted their involvement with the facility. The U.S. as part of the Six Party talks, is expecting N. Korea to disclose all their nuclear related programs, materials and facilities.

Lessons Learned?

ARTICLE: Lessons From Dayton For Iraq,
by Richard Holbrooke, Washington Post, April 23, 2008, Pg. 21

SARAJEVO — Twelve years ago, the guns in Bosnia fell silent after a war that killed at least 100,000 people and left more than 2 million homeless. Since then, the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement has often been suggested as a model for other peace efforts in countries with deep ethnic or religious differences. Bosnia’s “federalism” structure has been cited, especially by Sen. Joe Biden and former Council on Foreign Relations president Les Gelb, as a possible model for Iraq.

But the world has more or less turned its back on Bosnia itself. I returned to see how things were going. What I found has relevance to many other areas, including Iraq.

The core objective. Grade: A+. ..…. Our primary goal was to end the war — once and for all. Twelve years later, that objective has been fully achieved, at a cost of zero American and NATO lives.

Lessons for other countries: No agreement is worth much if it is not vigorously implemented and enforced. Political arrangements must reflect historical and ethnic realities. A unitary state with a strong central government may work in France or Japan, but not in Bosnia — nor, I believe, in such places as (to choose from many) Iraq, Afghanistan or Sudan. There (as in the United States, Germany and India), power must be shared between the central government and the states or provinces. The United States must recognize this in Iraq.

CIA Report – North Korea and Syria

ARTICLE: CIA To Describe North Korea-Syria Nuclear Ties
(Los Angeles Times)…Paul Richter and Greg Miller

…U.S. officials provided little explanation of why they want to brief lawmakers on the North Korean-Syrian links after declining to do so for months. A senior Senate aide said the timing appears driven by a Bush administration desire to apprise committee members of the latest intelligence on the reactor before releasing some of the information.

North Korea and Syria Link

ARTICLE: U.S. To Link North Korea To Syria
Wall Street Journal, by Jay Solomon, April 23, 2008
Pg. 7

North Korea was helping Syria build a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor before Israel bombed the site last September, the Bush administration is set to tell Congress.

Expectations from the Six Party Talks with North Korea include:

Yongbyon nuclear reactor permanently disabled in exchange for shipments of heavy fuel oil and release of frozen bank funds. U.S. officials estimate that North Korea extracted between 30 kilograms (66 pounds) and 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of plutonium from its now-shut Yongbyon reactor

North Korea discloses all it’s nuclear activities at home and abroad in exchange for certain U.S. concessions, including removal from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors and lifting of U.S. trade sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act, a 1917 law.

U.S. South Korea Agree to Pause Drawdown

ARTICLE: U.S., South Korea Agree To Pause Drawdown,
Pacific Stars and Stripes)…Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym, April 23, 2008

The United States will pause the drawdown of its troops in South Korea, military officials from both countries said Monday.

“We reached an agreement to maintain the current U.S. troop level on the Korean peninsula. This is a mutual agreement that benefits both our nations and will strengthen our alliance.” -President George W. Bush

The U.S. and South Korea agreed to the drawdown in 2004 when the U.S. had 38,500 troops stationed in South Korea. The number of troops were to be reduced to 25,000 by the end of 2008. Current level of 28,000 to be maintained.

U.S. Team Headed to Pyongyang

ARTICLE: U.S. Team Headed To Pyongyang In Search Of ‘Significant Progress’Washington Post, Blaine Harden, April 22, 2008, Pg. 11

The disclosure-for-aid deal negotiated last fall and due last Dec. 31. For the first time since the United States eased demands on North Korea, a U.S. delegation is headed to the communist state to try to verify the extent of its nuclear program.

Over the weekend, President Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said U.S. concessions to the North could unlock delicate negotiations. Bush has been criticized by some Republicans for yielding too much to the Stalinist government of Kim Jong Il.

“Why don’t we just wait and see what they say before people go out there and start giving their opinions about whether this is a good deal or a bad deal?” Bush said Saturday at Camp David, Md., where he met with Lee.

The recently elected South Korean president added that talks with North Korea require “persistent patience.” “It’s difficult to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs, but it is not impossible,” Lee said.

N. Korea Says It Produced 30 Kilograms of Plutonium

ARTICLE: N. Korea Says It Produced 30 Kilograms of Plutonium, (Washington Post)…Reuters, April 21, 2008, Pg. 11

…North Korea has said it has accounted for its past and current activities as required. But the United States says that the North has not discussed any transfer of nuclear technology to other countries, notably Syria, nor has it accounted for its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment.

Nuclear Deterrence

ARTICLE: “Deterring The Undeterrable,” by Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, April 18, 2008

The era of nonproliferation is over. During the first half-century of the nuclear age, safety lay in restricting the weaponry to major powers and keeping it out of the hands of rogue states. This strategy was inevitably going to break down. The inevitable has arrived.

There are four ways to deal with rogue states going nuclear: preemption, deterrence, missile defense and regime change.

North Korea – Nuclear Agreement

 

ARTICLE: “Past Deals By N. Korea May Face Less Study,” by Helene Cooper, New York Times, April 18, 2008

The Bush administration appears to be preparing to back away from a demand that North Korea fully disclose all of its past nuclear weapons activities, in an attempt to preserve a nuclear agreement requiring it to disclose and dismantle the bulk of its nuclear weapons program.

As described by administration officials on Thursday, the step would relax a demand for North Korea to admit fully that it supplied Syria with nuclear technology. The United States would also agree to postpone its demand that North Korea provide an immediate and full accounting of its fledgling uranium program.