Meanwhile, Back at Reality, 8000 Spent Fuel Rods are Missing in North Korea

Jack Pritchard, What I Saw in North Korea

On Jan. 8, North Korean officials gave an unofficial American delegation, of which I was a member, access to the building in Yongbyon where about 8,000 spent fuel rods had once been safeguarded. We discovered that all 8,000 rods had been removed.

Whether they have been reprocessed for weapons-grade plutonium, as Pyongyang claims, is almost irrelevant. American intelligence believed that most if not all the rods remained in storage, giving policymakers a false sense that time was on their side as they rebuffed North Korean requests for serious dialogue and worked laboriously to devise a multilateral approach to solving the rapidly escalating crisis.

Here's what George W. Bush had to say about this critical subject in the State of the Union:

Different threats require different strategies. Along with nations in the region, we're insisting that North Korea eliminate its nuclear program. … America is committed to keeping the world's most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the most dangerous regimes.

Well, I feel better now, don't you?

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2 Responses to Meanwhile, Back at Reality, 8000 Spent Fuel Rods are Missing in North Korea

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  2. Donna says:

    NO!!!!!!! This is a tremendous disaster as is Mr. Bush’s reaction to this escalating crisis! P.S. I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT HENCE NOT A BUSH-BASHER! He however is a dismal failure as a President for the U.S.! I am rattled to the core over this as well as his slow nonchalant reaction to the whole issue of North Korea. This is by FAR a much larger problem than Iraq ever became, yet he gave and is giving all the attention and gusto in Iraq that much more needfully should be applied to North Korea!!!

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