North Korea Giving Up Nukes?

Roadtoad

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Roadtoad
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Under an agreement reached in direct talks in Beijing last week, North Korea has agreed to allow the return of nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, and has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities, the State Department said. In return, the United States will provide North Korea with a large food aid package.

"To improve the atmosphere for dialogue and demonstrate its commitment to de-nuclearization, the DPRK has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a press statement Wednesday. "The DPRK has also agreed to the return of IAEA inspectors to verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon and confirm the disablement of the 5-MW reactor and associated facilities."

Despite the stunning breakthrough, "the United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas," Nuland's statement cautioned, but added that "today's announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these."

In return, the United States will "move forward with our proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance along with the intensive monitoring required for the delivery of such assistance," she said.
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Link.

First, I don't buy it. This is not a "breakthrough" until inspectors show up, and genuine changes begin. Presently, North Korea uses CANDU reactors which produce enriched plutonium, (IIRC: If someone has better info, please post it.) There's no guarantee that DPRK will actually open ALL facilities to inspectors, or that the inspectors will have the knowledge they need of the North's activities to change direction.

Second, the whole business of providing food aid when a nation with fertile ground is bankrupting itself to build WMDs is simply odd to me. Are we also going to insist on changes to the North's policies which will alter this, and make it possible for people to eat? (And do we even have that authority? My magic 8Ball says, "Hmmmmmm.")
 
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So, they stop their nuclear weapons development program, and that's a good thing (if it's true), but I don't see anything in there about dismantling their current stockpile, if there is such a thing.
 
hgc said:
So, they stop their nuclear weapons development program, and that's a good thing (if it's true), but I don't see anything in there about dismantling their current stockpile, if there is such a thing.
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That would be the other thing concerning me. :(
 
I am not too worried about the existing stocks, if they actually exist. I don't think that even a lunatic government lioke North Korea's would think that they would survive a nuclear exchange or that they would really profit from selling them to an even crazier dictator somewhere.
 
Roadtoad said:
First, I don't buy it. This is not a "breakthrough" until inspectors show up, and genuine changes begin. Presently, North Korea uses CANDU reactors which produce enriched plutonium, (IIRC: If someone has better info, please post it.) There's no guarantee that DPRK will actually open ALL facilities to inspectors, or that the inspectors will have the knowledge they need of the North's activities to change direction.
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South Korea has CANDUs. North Korea does not.

That being said, all nuclear reactors produce Plutonium ("enriched" Plutonium is a misnomer as unlike Uranium, the majority of Pu that is produced is fissile). CANDUs are slightly better at it than most conventional reactors due to their high breeding ratio and the ability to add or remove fuel from the reactor core while it is running.
 
Sword_Of_Truth said:
South Korea has CANDUs. North Korea does not.

That being said, all nuclear reactors produce Plutonium ("enriched" Plutonium is a misnomer as unlike Uranium, the majority of Pu that is produced is fissile). CANDUs are slightly better at it than most conventional reactors due to their high breeding ratio and the ability to add or remove fuel from the reactor core while it is running.
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Thanks for the clarification.
 
They aren't giving up very much are they? A temporary easily reversible pause in enrichment activity.

We've seen this movie before. They pretend to be reasonable for long enough to get what they want, in this case 240,000 tons of food, and then go back to being as belligerent as ever.
 
Puppycow said:
They aren't giving up very much are they? A temporary easily reversible pause in enrichment activity.

We've seen this movie before. They pretend to be reasonable for long enough to get what they want, in this case 240,000 tons of food, and then go back to being as belligerent as ever.
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Tell North Korea as long as you behave yourself you get food aid. Just enough so that people do not starve. Concessions by North Korea will continue to be needed to keep getting aid. Then there would be no rush for North Korea to fix its food production problems. Any trouble from North Korea and the food aid is cut off and the people starve.

If you really want to be nasty without admitting it put some poison in the food aid. Not enough for a person to be harmed if they only eat a little. But if they eat only the food aid and eat enough to be fully fit then they get sick. One example is have the food very high in Vitamin A.
 
timhau said:
It is also possible that Dear Larder just found his dad's playbook -- pretend to be reasonable for some time, while simultaneously preparing for your next weird stunt.
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Or he had a nice long talk with daddy´s buddies in uniform... you know, the ones with the guns and tanks and stuff that give him his power.
 
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