Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Foreign Affairs - Home

The contents of Foreign Affairs magazine contains this gem: Did North Korea Cheat?
Two years ago, Washington accused Pyongyang of running a secret nuclear weapons program. But how much evidence was there to back up the charge? A review of the facts shows that the Bush administration misrepresented and distorted the data — while ignoring the one real threat North Korea actually poses.
The author Selig S. Harrison is identified as follows:
Selig S. Harrison is Director of the Asia Program and Chairman of the Task Force on U.S. Korea Policy at the Center for International Policy. He is also a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the author of Korean Endgame.
I wonder if Mr. Harrison is rethinking his analysis in light of North Korea's admission of possessing nuclear weapons? His comment:
The Bush administration, however, has made a much more serious charge: that North Korea has been secretly making nuclear weapons that might be deployed by "mid-decade" and thus cannot be trusted to honor a new denuclearization agreement. If it turns out that Pyongyang has developed no operational enrichment facilities at all--or only LEU, not HEU, facilities--Washington's claim will be discredited.
seems to have been overtaken by events - what the administration charged is now admitted and the discrediting is of Mr. Harrison's analysis. Unless, of course, North Korea, like bluffing like Saddam is now alleged to have been doing, but in light of Saddam's fate, it seems unlikely that the DPRK would be foolish enough to follow suit.

Yes, I know, I have the advantage of hindsight.

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