Uranium Testing Said to Indicate Libya-Korea Link -NYT

[Rose Siding]

Scientific tests have led American intelligence agencies and government scientists to conclude with near certainty that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, bolstering earlier indications that the reclusive state exported sensitive fuel for atomic weapons, according to officials with access to the intelligence.

The determination, which has circulated among senior government officials in recent weeks, has touched off a hunt to determine if North Korea has also sold uranium to other countries, including Iran and Syria. So far, there is no evidence that such additional transactions took place.

Nonetheless, the conclusion about the uranium transfer to Libya, which is contained in a classified briefing that has been described to The New York Times, could alter Washington's debate about the assessment of the North Korean nuclear threat. In the past, some Bush administration officials have argued that there is time to find a diplomatic solution to the problem because there was no evidence that the government of Kim Jung Il was spreading its atomic technology abroad.
...
Now, intelligence officials say, extensive testing conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee over the last several months has concluded that the material did not originate in Pakistan or other suspect countries, and one official said that "with a certainty of 90 percent or better, this stuff's from North Korea."

http://nytimes.com/2005/02/02/politics/02nukes.html?hp&ex=1107320400&en=b2889fe4e2b93971&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Career Prole]

1. "this stuff's from North Korea"...and Kim got the technology where?

Oh yeah, chimp amigo Pakistan and their man Khan.
Do they really think we're all freakin' morons with memory spans that fail to bridge the gap between one celebrity trial and the next?
What insulting bullshit this is.

[Rose Siding]

2. They're ramming it through, just like the wmd

snip>
It is unclear if there are any dissenting views in the government, though some outside experts have accused the administration of overstating intelligence on North Korea. Officials cautioned that the analysis of the uranium had been hampered by the fact that the United States has no sample of known North Korean uranium for comparison with the material recovered in Libya. The study was done by eliminating other possible sources of uranium, a result that is less certain than the nuclear equivalent of matching DNA samples.
...
"It suggests we don't have time to sit around and wait for the outcome of negotiations," the official said. "It's a scary conclusion because you don't know who else they may have sold to."

[Career Prole]

4. I gotta tell ya, Rosie...

...if this country sits still for it again I'm getting out.
Will they? More importantly, will the media be complicit again?
This story isn't encouraging. :(

[Rose Siding]

5. I just don't know

It's still hard to believe that it happened the first time

[Career Prole]

6. It's a curiously detached group that would vote for the chimp

after the first time.
"Curiously detached" is code for a blistering string of oaths, of course. :eyes:

[lovuian]

3. Libya is speaking with fork tongue!!!

Maybe we should go to war with them!!!

[Rose Siding]

7. In France, Rice is toning down rhetoric on NK

or at least that's the conclusion of the Reuters reporter...

snip>
North Korean officials told U.S. congressmen on a recent visit to Pyongyang they were looking for new assurances that America would not take military action against their country or try to overthrow the government.

Rice said the United States "has a strong alliance with the ROK (South Korea) that protects and defends on the Korean peninsula" but stressed: "The idea that somehow the United States is hostilely going to attack North Korea couldn't be more far fetched."

"They've even been told that in the six-party context there could be some kind of assurance of that ... So the path ahead is pretty clear," she said. The six-country talks involve the United States, North and South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

At her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing last month, Rice offered North Korea more of a two-pronged message, insisting while there are no U.S. plans to invade, "we have a deterrent against any North Korean action or attempts at action."

In Tuesday's interview, the phrasing was more measured.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=665018