U.S. official says North Korea wants to be a 'Pakistan'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.iht.com/getina/files/245885.html

WASHINGTON - A Bush administration expert on North Korea says that Pyongyang wants to become what he called "the Pakistan of Northeast Asia" and that Washington is expecting the North to conduct a nuclear weapons test.

In an interview with the Joong-Ang Ilbo, the Washington official who covers Korean Peninsula affairs said Tuesday that North Korea openly mentioned Pakistan's nuclear arms status during the six-party talks last year.

He said North Korean officials said at the time that Pakistan had conducted a nuclear test in the face of U.S. warnings not to, but no sanctions had been imposed in return. After a few years, the country and the United States were in an alliance in the U.S. war on terrorism. The U.S. official said North Korea had expressed an intention to become a nuclear-armed state, calculating that, like Pakistan, it could do so without being confronted with sanctions.

Separately, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said yesterday it had completed removing spent nuclear fuel rods from a reactor in the country's nuclear complex. Through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang said it had removed 8,000 fuel rods from the reactor at Yongbyon. When reprocessed with chemicals, the 8,000 rods can yield enough plutonium to make two to three more nuclear weapons.

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[bemildred]

1. An awesomely stupid thing to say, on every level.

Worthy of Bolton.

[CottonBear]

2. What an idiot. With experts like him who needs Bolton.

:nuke: :scared: :hide: