It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

CHINA IS NOT CONVINCED THAT NORTH KOREA HAS AN ENRICHED URANIUM PROGRAM

at a meeting in Seoul between Chinese, South Korean and Japanese officials on the North Korean crisis, one of the most senior Chinese diplomats dealing with the issue declared China did not believe North Korea had a highly enriched uranium program, according to U.S. officials who have been informed about the meeting by the Japanese.

At the meeting, the Chinese official, Fu Ying, and her Japanese counterpart, Mitoji Yabunaka, were discussing a possible freeze of North Korea's nuclear programs when Yabunaka noted it would be necessary to freeze both Yongbyon and the highly enriched uranium program.

Fu responded that North Korea has denied having an enrichment program, and that China also did not believe that it had one. She added that the U.S. government briefing provided to China had not been sufficient to convince China that North Korea had such a program.

So, we move closer and closer to going back to square one. After Iraq and its apparent lack of WMDs (I saw on the news last night that the latest consensus appears to be that Iraq had pieces of paper describing what its WMD program might look like if were ever developed), it is entirely reasonable to be more the a bit skeptical concerning U.S. intelligence claims of WMD programs in other countries. Will the Bush team show their hand and clearly demonstrate to the world that they do have strong evidence supporting its claims that the DPRK has an HEU program? Or does it lack such evidence but is too committed to a hawkish approach to North Korea to admit it?