North Korean Nuclear Armed Missiles

[Sean Osborne]

http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/missiles/NKorea_can_make_nuclear_warhead_for_missile_experts160010583.php

NKorea can make nuclear warhead for missile: experts
Agence France-Presse | Feb 21, 2007

North Korea is capable of arming its medium-range Nodong missile with a
crude nuclear warhead, two North Korea is capable of arming its medium-range Nodong missile with a crude nuclear warhead, two US experts said in a report released Wednesday.

The report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and
International Security (ISIS) also estimates that the communist state
has separated enough plutonium to build about five to 12 nuclear weapons.

The North, which agreed in principle last week to disable its nuclear
facilities, has been working to develop a nuclear warhead for the Nodong
since at least 1994, say the report's authors, David Albright and Paul
Brannan.

It is also suspected to have obtained warhead designs from Pakistan's
rogue nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

"North Korea is judged capable of putting a crude (nuclear) warhead on a
Nodong missile," says the report, which follows a visit by former UN
nuclear inspector Albright and former State Department official Joel Wit
to Pyongyang early this month.

The Nodong, a variant of the Soviet Scud with a potential range of
1,000-1,300 km (625-800 miles), could reach parts of Japan.

But the report says the warhead may not be reliable and may have a
relatively low yield.

It estimates that North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test
last October, has an estimated plutonium stockpile of 46-64 kilograms
(101-141 pounds) of plutonium, of which 28-50 kilograms are estimated to
be in separated form and usable in nuclear weapons.

The vast majority of the separated plutonium, it says, has been produced
since a 1994 deal with the United States to shut down the Yongbyon
plutonium-producing reactor collapsed in late 2002.

The 1994 Agreed Framework collapsed when the United States accused the
North of cheating on it by running a secret highly enriched uranium
programme, something the North has publicly denied.

Under the new deal reached last week during six-nation talks in Beijing,
the North agreed to disable its nuclear facilities in exchange for
energy aid.

As a first step it will shut down and seal Yongbyon within 60 days,
re-admit UN nuclear inspectors and receive 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil
or equivalent aid in return.

Action to permanently disable the nuclear facilities would be rewarded
with up to 950,000 tons of heavy oil or other aid.

Critics say the deal does not immediately address either the North's
existing nuclear weapons and plutonium stockpile or its suspected
uranium-based programme. Supporters say it is a good first step.

[Sean Osborne]

The following is an excerpted segment from the March 2, 2007 "Inside the Ring" report by Bill Gertz.

http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html

DIA doubts N. Korea

Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that his agency has its doubts that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons under the recent Beijing agreement.


A little-noticed portion of Gen. Maples' prepared statement appears to throw cold water on the Feb. 13 nuclear deal worked out in Beijing in six-party talks with representatives from the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

The vaguely worded agreement calls for North Korea to shut down its reactor complex at Yongbyon as a first step toward disclosing and dismantling its nuclear facilities.

"While North Korea may agree to give up plutonium production, major uncertainties surround the conditions under which the North would entirely abandon its nuclear weapons capability, or of the likelihood of the North transferring nuclear weapons-related technology abroad," Gen. Maples said in the statement, which was updated from earlier testimony in January to reflect the Beijing accord.
North Korea set off its first underground nuclear test Oct. 9 and is demanding to be treated by other nations as a nuclear power.