What was in the background of our foreign policy has now steamed to the forefront with the shelling of South Korea. The Wall Street Journal asks and answers if this incident was different than others in the past, in that while there have been military flare-ups between North and South, this is the first time a civilian area was hit. And it was almost fortuitous that I decided to post the night before this indecent a commentary by Chasrles Krauthammer that is worth re-posting here:
So how does all this change our foreign policy overnight in regard to this military cult? Jane’s posts a bit on one aspect that is now under scrutiny (non-subscriber section):
Scientist confirms activity at North Korean nuclear site
US nuclear scientist Dr Sig Hecker has confirmed Jane’s reports of activity at Yongbyon Nuclear Complex in North Korea and revealed that a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment plant is in operation at the site.
Hecker, who visited Yongbyon for the fourth time in mid-November, identified construction at the site as the foundation of a 100 MW thermal light-water reactor, a finding that has been confirmed by new satellite imagery.
A co-director of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Hecker wrote in a CISAC report published on 20 November that he had also seen a “small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility with 2,000 centrifuges that was recently completed and said to be producing low enriched uranium (LEU) destined for fuel for the new reactor”.
The existence of the new reactor site is confirmed by satellite images taken on 4 November 2010 by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2. They show the newly paved concrete pad of the reactor core and the foundation of the reactor containment wall. The circular pad is about 22 metres in diameter and is situated within a 43 m 2 recently entrenched cut that will accommodate the reactor containment building.
Jane’s first reported renewed activity at this site after analysis of a 24 September 2010 GeoEye-1 satellite image showed four construction vehicles preparing the site. The concrete pad of the reactor has since been laid and two massive cranes – one tower crane with a 54 m horizontal jib and one mobile crane – have been deployed to the site.
The Telegraph also mentions this facility:
US says China must put pressure on North Korea
China must persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear plans, a senior United States official has said, after the rogue state’s latest atomic plant was revealed.
The revelation that North Korea is building a new light water nuclear plant at its Yongbyon site was proof that it remains a “dangerous country” intent on making nuclear weapons, said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We have to continue to bring pressure on [Kim Jong-il] specifically.
[….]
Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist at Stanford University, revealed at the weekend that he had been taken to a plant at the Yongbyon nuclear complex this month where he saw hundreds of centrifuges that North Korea said were operational.
North Korea has said the new facility is for electricity generation, but the sophistication of the plant has surprised experts, and drawn a warning from Robert Gates, the US Defence secretary, that North Korea may use the plant for enriching uranium.
Pyongyang may have deliberately shown its hand in order to gain an advantage in any upcoming negotiations on aid for disarmament.
So the question is this, and is really Charles suggestion, would it be wiser for us to ramp up Japan and South Korea (and Taiwan) to make the point hit home that China better do something with North Korea and stop playing games?