North Korea and weapons of mass destruction

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North Korea and weapons of mass destruction

Events North Korean missile tests: 1993 1998 2006 2006 nuclear test Weapons Taepodong-1 Taepodong-2 See also Ryanggang explosion Yongbyon Military of North Korea

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North Korea claims to possess nuclear weapons, and it is widely believed to have a substantial arsenal of chemical weapons (deliverable by artillery). North Korea was a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but withdrew in 2003, citing the failure of the United States to fulfill its end of the Agreed Framework, a 1994 agreement between the states to limit North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

On October 9, 2006, the North Korean government issued an announcement that it had successfully conducted a nuclear test for the first time. Both the United States Geologic Survey and Japanese seismological authorities detected an earthquake with a preliminary estimated magnitude of 4.2 on the Richter scale in North Korea, corroborating some aspects of the North Korean claims.^[1] For more information on the October 9, 2006 test, see 2006 North Korean nuclear test.

Contents 1 Nuclear weapons 1.1 Background 1.2 Plutonium 1.3 Enriched uranium 1.4 North Korean-American relations 1.5 Chronology of events 1.5.1 1989-2001 1.5.2 2002 1.5.3 2003 1.5.4 2004 1.5.5 2005 1.5.6 2006 2 Biological and chemical weapons 3 Delivery systems 4 References 5 See also 6 External links 6.1 Continuing coverage 6.2 News articles and analysis 6.3 Reference sources

[edit] Nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons
History of nuclear weapons
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear arms race
Weapon design / testing
Nuclear explosion
Delivery systems
Nuclear espionage
Proliferation
States
Nuclear weapons states US · Russia · UK · France China · India · Pakistan Israel · North Korea
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[edit] Background

Korea has been a divided country since 1947. The Korean War was fought from June 25, 1950 until a cease-fire was declared on July 27, 1953. However, since North Korea and South Korea have still not officially made peace, strictly speaking, the war has yet to be ended officially.

Tensions between North and South have run high on numerous occasions since 1953. The deployment of the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division on the Korean peninsula and the American military presence at the Korean Demilitarized Zone are publicly regarded by North Korea as an occupying army. In several areas, North Korean and American/South Korean forces operate in extreme proximity to the border, adding to tension. This tension led to the border clash in 1976, which has become known as the Axe Murder Incident.

The U.S. has rejected recent North Korean calls for bilateral talks concerning a non-aggression pact, stating that only six-party talks that also include the People's Republic of China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea are acceptable. The American stance is that North Korea has violated prior bilateral agreements, thus such forums lack accountability. Conversely, North Korea refuses to speak in the context of six-party talks, stating that it will only accept bilateral talks with the United States. This has led to a diplomatic stalemate.

On November 19, 2006 North Korea’s Minju Joson newspaper accused South Korea of building up arms in order to attack the country: The South Korean military is openly clamoring that the development and introduction of new weapons are to target the North. Pyongyang accused South Korea of conspiring with the United States to attack the isolated and impoverished state, an accusation made frequently by the North and routinely denied by the U.S.^[2]

[edit] Plutonium

Concern focuses around two reactors at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, both of them small power stations using Magnox techniques. The smaller (5MWe) was completed in 1986 and has since produced possibly 8,000 spent fuel elements. Construction of the larger plant (50MWe) commenced in 1984 but in 2003 was still incomplete. This larger plant is based on the declassified blueprints of the Calder Hall power reactors used to produce plutonium for the UK nuclear weapons program. The smaller plant produces enough material to build one new bomb per year; if completed, the larger plant could produce enough for 10 each year ^[3]. It has also been suggested that small amounts of plutonium could have been produced in a Russian-supplied IRT-2000 heavy-water moderated research reactor completed in 1967, but there are no recorded safeguards violations with respect to this plant.

On March 12, 1993, North Korea said that it planned to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refused to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites. By 1994, the United States believed that North Korea had enough reprocessed plutonium to produce about 10 bombs with the amount of plutonium increasing. Faced with diplomatic pressure and the threat of American military air strikes against the reactor, North Korea agreed to dismantle its plutonium program as part of the Agreed Framework in which South Korea and the United States would provide North Korea with light water reactors and fuel oil until those reactors could be completed. Because the light water reactors would require enriched uranium to be imported from outside North Korea, the amount of reactor fuel and waste could be more easily tracked, making it more difficult to divert nuclear waste to be reprocessed into plutonium. However, with bureaucratic red-tapes and political obstacles from the North Korea, KEDO,established to advance the implementation of "Agreed Framework", had failed to build the promised light water reactors and in late 2002, North Korea returned to using their old reactors.

[edit] Enriched uranium

With the abandonment of its plutonium program, North Korea began an enriched uranium program. Pakistan, through Abdul Qadeer Khan, supplied key technology and information to North Korea in exchange for missile technology around 1997, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

This program was publicized in October 2002 when the United States asked North Korean officials about the program, ^[4]. Although the Agreed Framework specifically prohibited then-existing plutonium programs, not uranium, the U.S. argued North Korea violated the "spirit" of the agreement. In December 2002, the United States terminated the 1994 Agreed Framework, suspending fuel oil shipments.

North Korea responded by announcing plans to reactivate a dormant nuclear fuel processing program and power plant north of Pyongyang. North Korea soon thereafter expelled U.N. inspectors and withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

[edit] North Korean-American relations

Main article: United States-North Korea relations

Even though U.S. President George W. Bush had named North Korea as part of an "Axis of Evil" following the September 11, 2001 attacks, U.S. officials stated that the United States was not planning any immediate military action.

According to John Feffer, co-director of ’Foreign Policy in Focus’, "The primary problem is that the current U.S. administration fundamentally doesn’t want an agreement with North Korea. The Bush administration considers the 1994 Agreed Framework to have been a flawed agreement. It doesn’t want to be saddled with a similar agreement, for if it did sign one, it would then be open to charges of "appeasing" Pyongyang. American ire at North Korea is further inflammed by allegations of state sponsored drug smuggling, money laundering, and wide scale counterfeiting. The Vice President has summed up the approach as: "We don’t negotiate with evil, we defeat evil." (see ^[5]).

Diplomatic efforts at resolving the North Korean situation are complicated by the different goals and interests of the nations of the region. While none of the parties desire a North Korea with nuclear weapons, Japan and South Korea are very concerned about North Korean counter strikes in case of military action against North Korea. The People's Republic of China and South Korea are also very worried about the economic and social consequences should this situation cause Korean government to collapse.

[edit] Chronology of events

Weapons of mass destruction
By type
Biological weapons
Chemical weapons
Nuclear weapons
Radiological weapons
By country
Algeria	Argentina
Australia	Brazil
Canada	P.R. China
France	Germany
India	Iran
Israel	Italy
Japan	Netherlands
North Korea	Pakistan
Poland	Russia
South Africa	ROC (Taiwan)
United Kingdom	United States
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[edit] 1989-2001

• 1989: Soviet control of communist governments throughout Europe begins to weaken and the Cold War comes to a close. As the USSR's power declines, North Korea loses the security guarantees and economic support that had sustained it for 45 years.
• Through satellite photos, the U.S. learns of new construction at a nuclear complex near the North Korean town of Yongbyon. U.S. intelligence analysts suspect that North Korea, which had signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1985 but had not yet allowed inspections of its nuclear facilities, is in the early stages of building an atomic bomb.^[6]
• In response, U.S. pursues a strategy in which North Korea's full compliance with the NPT would lead to progress on other diplomatic issues, such as the normalization of relations.
• 1992: In May, for the first time, North Korea allows a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), then headed by Hans Blix, to visit the facility at Yongbyon. Blix and the U.S. suspect that North Korea is secretly using its five-megawatt reactor and reprocessing facility at Yongbyon to turn spent fuel into weapons-grade plutonium. Before leaving, Blix arranges for fully equipped inspection teams to follow.
• The inspections do not go well. Over the next several months, the North Koreans repeatedly block inspectors from visiting two of Yongbyon's suspected nuclear waste sites and IAEA inspectors find evidence that the country is not revealing the full extent of its plutonium production.
• In an interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, former Secretary of State James Baker let it slip that North Korea “... had a rudimentary nuclear weapon way back in the days when I was secretary of state, but now this is a more advanced one evidently.” He was Secretary of State between 1989 and 1992.
• 1993: In March, North Korea threatens to withdraw from the NPT. Facing heavy domestic pressure from Republicans who oppose negotiations with North Korea, President Bill Clinton appoints Robert Gallucci to start a new round of negotiations. After 89 days, North Korea announces it has suspended its withdrawal. (The NPT requires three months notice before a country can withdraw.)
• In December, IAEA Director-General Blix announces that the agency can no longer provide "any meaningful assurances" that North Korea is not producing nuclear weapons.
• 12 October, 1994: the United States and North Korea signed the "Agreed Framework": North Korea agreed to freeze its plutonium production program in exchange for fuel oil, economic cooperation, and the construction of two modern light-water nuclear power plants. Eventually, North Korea's existing nuclear facilities were to be dismantled, and the spent reactor fuel taken out of the country.
• 26 October, 1994: IAEA Chairman Hans Blix tells the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee the IAEA is "not very happy" with the Agreed Framework because it gives North Korea too much time to begin complying with the inspections regime.
• 18 March, 1996: Hans Blix tells the IAEA's Board of Governors North Korea has still not made its initial declaration of the amount of plutonium they possess, as required under the Agreed Framework, and warned that without the declaration IAEA would lose the ability to verify North Korea was not using its plutonium to develop weapons.
• October 1997: spent nuclear fuel rods were encased in steel containers, under IAEA inspection. ^[7]
• 31 August, 1998: North Korea launched a modified Taepodong-1 missile in a launch attempt of its Kwangmyŏngsŏng satellite. US Military analysts suspect satellite launch is a ruse for the testing of an ICBM. ^[8] This missile flew over Japan causing the Japanese government to retract 1 billion in aid for two civilian light-water reactors. ^{[9] [10]}

[edit] 2002

• 7 August: "First Concrete" pouring at the construction site of the light-water nuclear power plants being built by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization under the 1994 Agreed Framework. Construction of both reactors was many years behind the agreement's target completion date of 2003.

• 3-5 October: On a visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly presses the North on suspicions that it is continuing to pursue a nuclear energy and missiles programme. Mr Kelly says he has evidence of a secret uranium-enriching programme carried out in defiance of the 1994 Agreed Framework. Under this deal, North Korea agreed to forsake nuclear ambitions in return for the construction of two safer light water nuclear power reactors and oil shipments from the US.

• 16 October: The US announces that North Korea admitted in their talks to a secret nuclear arms programme.

• 17 October: Initially the North appears conciliatory. Leader Kim Jong-il says he will allow international weapons inspectors to check that nuclear facilities are out of use.

• 20 October: North-South Korea talks in Pyongyang are undermined by the North's nuclear programme "admission". US Secretary of State Colin Powell says further US aid to North Korea is now in doubt. The North adopts a mercurial stance, at one moment defiantly defending its "right" to weapons development and at the next offering to halt nuclear programmes in return for aid and the signing of a "non-aggression" pact with the US. It argues that the US has not kept to its side of the Agreed Framework, as the construction of the light water reactors - due to be completed in 2003 - is now years behind schedule.

• 14 November: US President George W Bush declares November oil shipments to the North will be the last if the North does not agree to put a halt to its weapons ambitions.

• 18 November: Confusion clouds a statement by North Korea in which it initially appears to acknowledge having nuclear weapons. A key Korean phrase understood to mean the North does have nuclear weapons could have been mistaken for the phrase "entitled to have", Seoul says.

• 27 November: The North accuses the US of deliberately misinterpreting its contested statement, twisting an assertion of its "right" to possess weapons into an "admission" of possession.

• 4 December: The North rejects a call to open its nuclear facilities to inspection.

• 11 December: North Korean-made Scud missiles are found aboard a ship bound for Yemen. The US illegally detains the ship, but is later forced to allow the ship to go, conceding that neither country has broken any law.

• 12 December: The North pledges to reactivate nuclear facilities for energy generation, saying the Americans' decision to halt oil shipments leaves it with no choice. It exposes the US for wrecking the 1994 pact.

• 13 December: North Korea asks the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to remove seals and surveillance equipment - the IAEA's "eyes and ears" on the North's nuclear status - from its Yongbyon power plant.

• 22 December: The North begins removing monitoring devices from the Yongbyon plant.

• 24 December: North Korea begins repairs at the Yongbyon plant. North-South Korea talks over reopening road and rail border links, which have been struggling on despite the increased tension, finally stall.

• 25 December: It emerges that North Korea had begun shipping fuel rods to the Yongbyon plant which could be used to produce plutonium.

• 26 December: The IAEA expresses concern in the light of UN confirmation that 1,000 fuel rods have been moved to the Yongbyon reactor.

• 27 December: North Korea says it is expelling the two IAEA nuclear inspectors from the country. It also says it is planning to reopen a reprocessing plant, which could start producing weapons grade plutonium within months.

[edit] 2003

• 2 January: South Korea asks China to use its influence with North Korea to try to reduce tension over the nuclear issue, and two days later Russia offers to press Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme.

• 6 January: The IAEA passes a resolution demanding that North Korea readmit UN inspectors and abandon its secret nuclear weapons programme "within weeks", or face possible action by the UN Security Council.

• 7 January: The US says it is "willing to talk to North Korea about how it meets its obligations to the international community". But it "will not provide quid pro quos to North Korea to live up to its existing obligations".

• 9 January: North Korea agrees to hold cabinet-level talks with South Korea on 21 January.

• 10 January: North Korea announces it will withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

• 24 January: Cabinet-level talks between North and South Korea end without making progress. South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun proposes face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong-il.

• 28 January: In his annual State of the Union address, President Bush alleges North Korea is "an oppressive regime [whose] people live in fear and starvation". He accuses North Korea of deception over its nuclear ambitions and says "America and the world will not be blackmailed".

• 29 January: North Korea says Mr Bush's speech is an "undisguised declaration of aggression to topple the DPRK system" and dubs him a "shameless charlatan". At the same time, however, it reiterates its demand for bilateral talks on a non-aggression pact.

• 31 January: Unnamed American officials are quoted as saying that spy satellites have tracked movement at the Yongbyon plant throughout January, prompting fears that North Korea is trying to reprocess plutonium for nuclear bombs.
• White House spokesman Ari Fleischer delivers a stern warning that North Korea must not take "yet another provocative action... intended to intimidate and blackmail the international community".

• 4 February: The United States says it is considering new military deployments in the Pacific Ocean to back up its forces in South Korea, as a deterrent against any North Korean aggression, in the event that the US unleashes aggression on Iraq.

• 5 February: North Korea says it has reactivated its nuclear facilities and their operations are now going ahead "on a normal footing".

• 6 February: North Korea warns the United States that any decision to build up its troops in the region could lead the North to make a pre-emptive attack on American forces.

• 12 February: The IAEA finds North Korea in breach of nuclear safeguards and refers the matter to the UN security council.

• 16 February: Kim Jong-il celebrates his 61st birthday, but state media warns North Korean citizens to be on "high alert".

• 17 February: The US and South Korea announce that they will hold joint military exercises in March.

• 24 February: North Korea fires a missile into the sea between South Korea and Japan.

• 25 February: Roh Moo-hyun sworn in as South Korean president.

• 2 March: Four North Korean fighter jets intercept a US reconnaissance plane in international air space and shadow it for 22 minutes.

• 10 March: North Korea fires a second missile into the sea between South Korea and Japan in as many weeks.

• 22 March: As a blistering bombing campaign pounds the Iraqi capital, and South Korean and US forces perform military exercises on its doorstep, a jumpy North denounces their "confrontational posture" and calls off talks with the South.

• 1 April: The US announces that "stealth" fighters sent to South Korea for a training exercise are to stay on once the exercises end.

• 7 April: Ministerial talks between North and South Korea are cancelled after Pyongyang fails to confirm they would take place.

• 9 April: The United Nations Security Council expresses concern about North Korea's nuclear programme, but fails to condemn Pyongyang for pulling out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

• 12 April: In a surprise move, North Korea signals it may be ready to end its insistence on direct talks with the US, announcing that "if the US is ready to make a bold switchover in its Korea policy for a settlement of the nuclear issue, [North Korea] will not stick to any particular dialogue format".

• 18 April: North Korea announces that it has started reprocessing its spent fuel rods. The statement is later amended to read that Pyongyang has been "successfully going forward to reprocess" the rods.

• 23 April: Talks begin in Beijing between the US and North Korea, hosted by China. The talks are led by the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, James Kelly, and the deputy director general of North Korea's American Affairs Bureau, Li Gun.

• 24 April: American officials say Pyongyang has told them that it now has nuclear weapons, after the first direct talks for months between the US and North Korea in Beijing end a day early.

• 25 April: Talks end amid mutual recrimination, after the US says North Korea had made its first admission that it possessed nuclear weapons.

• 28 April: US Secretary of State Colin Powell says North Korea made an offer to US officials, during the talks in Beijing, to scrap its nuclear programme in exchange for major concessions from the United States. He does not specify what those concessions are, but reports say that Pyongyang wants normalised relations with the US and economic assistance. Mr Powell says Washington is studying the offer.

• 5 May: North Korea demands the US respond to what it terms the "bold proposal" it made during the Beijing talks.

• 12 May: North Korea says it is scrapping a 1992 agreement with the South to keep the peninsula free from nuclear weapons - Pyongyang's last remaining international agreement on non-proliferation.

• 15 May: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun meets US President George W Bush in Washington for talks on how to handle North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

• 2 June: A visiting delegation of US congressmen led by Curt Weldon says North Korean officials admitted the country had nuclear weapons had "just about completed" reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods which would allow it to build more.

• 9 June: North Korea says publicly that it will build a nuclear deterrent, "unless the US gives up its hostile policy".

• 13 June: South Korea's Yonhap news agency says North Korean officials told the US on 30 June that it had completed reprocessing the fuel rods.

• 18 June: North Korea says it will "put further spurs to increasing its nuclear deterrent force for self-defence".

• 9 July: South Korea's spy agency says North Korea has started reprocessing a "small number" of the 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods at Yongbyon.

• 1 August: North Korea agrees to six-way talks on its nuclear programme, South Korea confirms. The US, Japan, China and Russia will also be involved.

• 27-29 August: Six-nation talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear programme. The meeting fails to bridge the gap between Washington and Pyongyang. Delegates agree to meet again.

• 2 October: North Korea announces publicly it has reprocessed the spent fuel rods.

• 16 October: North Korea says it will "physically display" its nuclear deterrent.

• 30 October: North Korea agrees to resume talks on the nuclear crisis, after saying it is prepared to consider the US offer of a security guarantee in return for ending its nuclear programme.

• 21 November: Kedo, the international consortium formed to build 'tamper-proof' nuclear power plants in North Korea, decides to suspend the project.

• 9 December: North Korea offers to "freeze" its nuclear programme in return for a list of concessions from the US. It says that unless Washington agrees, it will not take part in further talks. The US rejects North Korea's offer. President George W Bush says Pyongyang must dismantle the programme altogether.

• 27 December: North Korea says it will take part in a new round of six-party talks on its nuclear programme in early 2004.

[edit] 2004

• 2 January: South Korea confirms that the North has agreed to allow a group of US experts, including a top nuclear scientist, visit Yongbyon nuclear facility.

• 10 January: The unofficial US team visits what the North calls its "nuclear deterrent" facility at Yongbyon.

• 22 January: US nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker tells Congress that the delegates visiting Yongbyon were shown what appeared to be weapons-grade plutonium, but he did not see any evidence of a nuclear bomb.

• 3 February: North Korea reports that the next round of six-party talks on the nuclear crisis will be held on 25 February.

• 25 February: Second round of six nation talks end without breakthrough in Beijing.

• 23 May: The UN atomic agency is reported to be investigating allegations that North Korea secretly sent uranium to Libya when Tripoli was trying to develop nuclear weapons.

• 23 June: Third round of six nation talks held in Beijing, with the US making a new offer to allow North Korea fuel aid if it freezes then dismantles its nuclear programmes.

• 2 July: US Secretary of State Colin Powell meets the North Korean Foreign Minister, Paek Nam-sun, in the highest-level talks between the two countries since the crisis erupted.

• 24 July: North Korea rejects US suggestions that it follow Libya's lead and give up its nuclear ambitions, calling the US proposal a "daydream".

• 3 August: North Korea is in the process of developing a new missile system for ships or submarines, according to a report in Jane's Defence Weekly.

• 16 August: North Korea says it will not attend a working meeting ahead of the next round of six-party talks on its controversial nuclear programme, saying the US was "not interested in making the dialogue fruitful".

• 23 August: North Korea describes US President George W Bush as an "imbecile" and a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade", in response to comments President Bush made describing the North's Kim Jong-il as a "tyrant".

• 28 September: North Korea says it has turned plutonium from 8,000 spent fuel rods into nuclear weapons. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon said the weapons were needed for "self-defence" against "US nuclear threat".

[edit] 2005

• 14 January: North Korea says it is willing to restart stalled talks on its nuclear programme, according to the official KCNA news agency. The statement says North Korea "would not stand against the US but respect and treat it as a friend unless the latter slanders the former's system and interferes in its internal affairs".

• 19 January: Condoleezza Rice, President George W Bush's nominee as secretary of state, identifies North Korea as one of six "outposts of tyranny" where the US must help bring freedom.

• 10 February: North Korea says it is suspending its participation in the talks over its nuclear programme for an "indefinite period", blaming the Bush administration's intention to "antagonise, isolate and stifle it at any cost". The statement also repeats North Korea's assertion to have built nuclear weapons for self-defence.

• 18 April: South Korea says North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon reactor, a move which could allow it to extract more fuel for nuclear weapons.

• 1 May: North Korea fires a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan, on the eve of a meeting of members of the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.

• 11 May: North Korea says it has completed extraction of spent fuel rods from Yongbyon, as part of plans to "increase its nuclear arsenal".

• 16 May: North and South Korea hold their first talks in 10 months, with the North seeking fertiliser for its troubled agriculture sector.

• 25 May: The US suspends efforts to recover the remains of missing US servicemen in North Korea, saying restrictions placed on its work were too great.

• 7 June: China's envoy to the UN says he expects North Korea to rejoin the six-nation talks "in the next few weeks".

• 22 June: North Korea requests more food aid from the South during ministerial talks in Seoul, the first for a year.

• 9 July: North Korea says it will rejoin nuclear talks, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begins a tour of the region.

• 12 July: South Korea offers the North huge amounts of electricity as an incentive to end its nuclear weapons programme.

• 25 July: Fourth round of six-nation talks begins in Beijing.

• 7 August: The talks reach deadlock and a recess is called.

• 13 September: Talks resume, but a new North Korean request to be built a light water reactor prompts warnings of a "standoff" between the parties.

• 19 September: In what is initially hailed as an historic joint statement, North Korea agrees to give up all its nuclear activities and rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while the US says it had no intention of attacking.

• 20 September: North Korea says it will not scrap its nuclear programme until it is given a civilian nuclear reactor, undermining the joint statement and throwing further talks into doubt.

• 7 December: A senior US diplomat brands North Korea a "criminal regime" involved in arms sales, drug trafficking and currency forgery.

• 20 December: North Korea says it intends to resume building nuclear reactors, because the US had pulled out of a key deal to build it two new reactors.

[edit] 2006

• 12 April: A two-day meeting aimed at persuading North Korea to return to talks on its nuclear programme fails to resolve the deadlock.

• 26 June: A report by the Institute for Science and International Security estimates that current North Korea plutonium stockplies is sufficient for four to thirteen nuclear weapons.

• 3 July: Washington dismisses a threat by North Korea that it will launch a nuclear strike against the US in the event of an American attack, as a White House spokesman described the threat as "deeply hypothetical".

• 4 July: North Korea test-fires at least six missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, despite repeated warnings from the international community.

• 5 July: North Korea test-fires a seventh missile, despite international condemnation of its earlier launches. ^[11]

• 6 July: North Korea announces it would continue to launch missiles, as well as "stronger steps", if international countries were to apply additional pressure as a result of the latest missile launches, claiming it to be their sovereign right to carry out these tests. A US television network also reports that they have quoted intelligence sources in saying that North Korea is readying another Taepodong-2 long-range missile for launch. ^[12]

• 3 October: North Korea announces plans to test a nuclear weapon in the future, blaming "hostile US policy." ^[13] Their full text can be read here ^[14]

• 5 October: A US envoy directly threatens North Korea as to the upcoming test, stating "It (North Korea) can have a future or it can have these (nuclear) weapons, it cannot have them both." The envoy also mentions that any attempt to test a nuclear device would be seen as a "highly provocative act." ^[15]

• 6 October: The United Nations Security Council issues a statement declaring, "The Security Council urges the DPRK not to undertake such a test and to refrain from any action that might aggravate tension, to work on the resolution of non-proliferation concerns and to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through political and diplomatic efforts. Later in the day, there are unconfirmed reports of the North Korean government successfully testing a nuclear bomb." ^[16]

• 9 October: North Korea announces that it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapon test. The country's official Korean Central News Agency said the test was performed successfully and there was no radioactive leakage from the site. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (1:36 a.m. GMT) in Hwaderi near Kilju city, citing defense officials. The USGS detected an earthquake with a preliminary estimated magnitude of 4.2 at 41.311°N, 129.114°E ^[17]. The USGS coordinate indicates that the location in much north of Hwaderi, near the upper stream of Oran-chon, 17km NNW of Punggye-Yok, according to analysts reports.

• 10 October: Some western scientists had doubts as to whether the nuclear weapon test that took place on 9 October 2006 was in fact successful. The scientists cite that the measurements recorded only showed an explosion equivalent to 500 metric tons of TNT, as compared to the 1998 nuclear tests that India and Pakistan conducted which were from between 24 - 50 times more powerful. ^[18] This could indicate that the test resulted in a fizzle.

• 14 October: The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its announced nuclear test on 9 October 2006 that include steps to hit the North Korea's nuclear and missile programs as well as keeping luxury goods away from its leaders, for example French wines and spirits or jet skis. However, the sanctions do not have the full support of China and Russia. ^[19]

[edit] Biological and chemical weapons

North Korea is widely believed to possess a substantial arsenal of chemical weapons. It reportedly acquired the technology necessary to produce tabun and mustard gas as early as the 1950s,^[20] and now possesses a full arsenal of nerve agents and other advanced varieties, and has developed the means to launch them in artillery shells.^{[citation needed]} North Korea has a large artillery arsenal within range of Seoul, South Korea's capital, and a chemical attack could cause a very large number of casualties. North Korea has stated that this arsenal is required as deterrent from invasion.

North Korea has expended considerable resources on equipping its army with chemical-protection equipment.^{[citation needed]}

North Korea acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1987, the Geneva Protocol on January 4, 1989, but has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.

[edit] Delivery systems

Main article: North Korean missile tests

North Korea's ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction to a hypothetical target is somewhat limited by its missile technology. As of 2005, North Korea's total range with its No Dong missiles is only 1,300 km, enough to reach South Korea, Japan, and parts of Russia and China, but not to the United States or Europe. It is not known if this missile is actually capable of carrying the nuclear weapons North Korea has so far developed. BM-25 is a North Korean designed long-range ballistic missile with range capabilities of up to 1,550 miles (2493km), and potential of carrying a nuclear warhead. They have also developed the Taepodong-1 missile, which has a range of 2,000 km, but it is not yet in full deployment. With the development of the Taepodong-2 missile, with an expected range of 5,000-6,000 km^[21], North Korea could hypothetically deliver a warhead to almost all countries in Southeast Asia, and parts of Alaska or the continental United States. Such targets may include Los Angeles, Seattle, San Fransisco, and other cities on the west coast. Former CIA director George Tenet has claimed that, with a light payload, Taepodong-2 could reach western parts of Continental United States, though with low accuracy. ^[22]

To combat this potential threat to the region, various talks were held, including the Three-party talks, Four-Party talks, the Six-party talks in 2003 and now the Ten-party talks in 2006. ^[23]

On June 19 2006 there were news reports of an approaching test of a missile with the potential to target much of East Asia and across the Pacific to the continental United States. Some reports suggested that a satellite launch is being prepared rather than a missile test. ^[24] The rocket launch site was reported as the No-Dong facility on the Musu-dan promontory in the Sea of Japan. Satellite navigation tools such as Google Earth reveal an approximately 50m-long assembly building at 40.65918056° N 129.6591806° E (40°39'33.05" N, 129°39'33.05" E), with nearby launch, control and engine test facilities. On 5 July 2006 (local time), North Korea conducted multiple missile launch tests. Several short range missiles and a long-range Taepodong-2 ICBM were fired despite international pressure to cancel the launch. The long range missile failed and fell into the Sea of Japan just 45 seconds after launch. The Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that the long range missile may have been aimed at Hawaii ^[25]. Washington denies this claim. They believe it was for international attention and propaganda purposes due to the launch date (American Independence Day). While improving the missile defense system, President George W. Bush insists that diplomacy is key but a military strike (or any thing else) cannot be ruled out. Days later, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il threatened a nuclear war if a preemptive strike is launched and warned that any sanctions against North Korea will be taken as a "declaration of war."

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Foreign relations of North Korea
• U.S.-North Korea relations
• List of Korea-related topics

[edit] External links

[edit] Continuing coverage

• North Korea says it will give up nuclear weapons
• Yahoo! News - Full Coverage: North Korea
• Pyongyang Square Independent news coverage on North Korea
• KCNA The Korean Central News Agency.
• News Now news aggregator

[edit] News articles and analysis

• How N. Korea Changed the Nuclear Club's Rules Newsweek on MSNBC, October 23, 2006
• North Korea claims nuclear test Jane's Defence Weekly, October 9, 2006
• The Best U.S. Response to North Korea's Failed Missile Test NOW on PBS, July 7, 2006
• North Korea Says it Will Abandon Nuclear Efforts The New York Times, September 19, 2005
• An Antarctic Solution For the Koreas San Diego Union-Tribune, August 25, 2005
• North Korea's nuclear program, 2005, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2005
• Did North Korea cheat?, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2005. Note: Foreign Affairs is a publication by the Council on Foreign Relations. Reader discretion is advised.
• Diplomacy Fails to Slow Advance of Nuclear Arms, New York Times, August 8, 2004
• Talks on North Korea Nuclear Dispute Under Way, Associated Press, April 24, 2003
• Seoul to push North Korea on nukes, CNN, April 27, 2003
• Koreas Agree to Seek Peaceful End To Crisis, Reuters, January 23, 2003
• North Korean Nukes, PBS NewsHour report, January 8, 2003
• Targeting North Korea by Gregory Elich, globalresearch.ca, 31 December 2002
• Japan and South Korea: North Korea's Revelations Could Derail Normalization, Its Neighbors Say, The New York Times, October 18, 2002
• South Korea: Revelation Elicits Ire and Disdain in Seoul, The New York Times, October 18, 2002
• U.S. Says Pakistan Gave Technology to North Korea, The New York Times, October 18, 2002
• North Korea Says It Has a Program on Nuclear Arms, The New York Times, October 17, 2002
• Did North Korea Cheat?, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2005
• Dismantling the DPRK's Nuclear Weapons Program: A Practicable, Verifiable Plan of Action U.S. Institute of Peace, January 2006
• Economist.com : Rocket Man ( July 2006, Subscription Required )

[edit] Reference sources

• Federation of American Scientists guide to North Korean chemical weapons
• North Korea's missile arsenal – Key facts (based on South Korean defense ministry data); AFP, 1 June 2005
• North Korea: Problems, Perceptions and Proposals – Oxford Research Group, April 2004
• Nuclear Files.org Information on the North Korean nuclear program including links to source documents
• [1]
• James Baker speaking on the Daily Show With John Stewart airing October 9, 2006.
• Annotated bibliography for the North Korean nuclear weapons program from the Alsos Digital Library