It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

DPRK: "WE DON'T HAVE A WARHEAD" (LA Times; free registration required). (thanks to Angry Left for the post).

North Korean officials told an unofficial U.S. delegation last week that many claims about their nuclear program were exaggerated and that they did not have a nuclear warhead or a program to secretly enrich uranium for such a weapon, said sources familiar with the trip.

The North Koreans did, however, reiterate their claim to have produced weapons-grade plutonium and showed the delegation their facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and what was purported to be a sample of the plutonium.

"They said, 'We have the potential to make nuclear weapons, but we do not have a weapon,' " said a South Korean official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They were very adamant in their denials, especially about the highly enriched uranium."

Of course this unofficial delegation really had no way of verifying the veracity of the North Koreans' statements:

The delegation was shown the cooling pond where fuel rods from North Korea's 5-megawatt nuclear reactor are stored and what was said to be weapons-grade plutonium recently reprocessed from the fuel rods. But because the delegation was not allowed to take samples or photographs and was not given documents, it is difficult to confirm the exact nature of the material.

"The U.S. delegates consistently said they had a hard time making a final decision on what they had seen in the North," Wi Sung Lac, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official told reporters Monday.

A South Korean official sums things up:

"We don't necessarily believe them. I think they realize they made a mistake when they admitted it before and they want to take it back," said a South Korean official. "But we think they are very serious about wanting to negotiate in order to survive. They wanted to show the Americans that their nuclear program is transparent, that they are cooperative and they want to resolve this diplomatically."

This seems a bit odd to me. If the DPRK were convinced that the perceived threat of nuclear proliferation meant that Bush will take military action against North Korea the way it did in Iraq, then it seems logical that it would deny the existence of both the uranium enrichment and the plutonium reprocessing programs. On the other hand, if the DPRK wishes to use its possession of nuclear weapons as a deterrent against an American attack, it would seem logical that the DPRK would like to keep the U.S. guessing about just how many programs it actually has. If the Americans can't know for certain how many programs there are, where they are located etc., it is less likely that a preemptive strike can take out all the suspected nuclear sites. But rather than either of these approaches, the DPRK appears to be wanting to have its cake and eat it too: "we peace-loving-but-worried-about-our-own-survival-and-security North Koreans both have and don't have a nuclear weapons capability."