It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

So says, the Natural Resources Defence Council, basing this conclusion on satellite photos of DPRK military installations:

Kyodo News ("SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW OUTDATED N. KOREAN MILITARY FORCES", 2005-01-06) reported that a US environmental group unveiled Wednesday some 100 commercial satellite photos of DPRK defense, nuclear and other facilities taken over the past two to three years, concluding that its conventional military weapons are outdated and do not pose a threat to the US and ROK. "From what has been seen of North Korea's capability, certainly not a threat to the United States...not much of a threat to South Korea," Thomas Cochran, the nuclear program director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in releasing the photos at a press conference.

Why and how an environmental activist group became competent to draw conclusions about military capabilities from commercial satellite photos is not readily apparent. What is apparent is that the NRDC has a certain agenda that minimizing the North Korean nuclear threat would support:

Cochran also said the photos suggested that there is no need for nuclear weapons, especially the earth-penetrating bunker busters being developed by the US, to remove targets, adding that the DPRK can be dealt with using conventional weapons.

I would still be interested in taking a look at those photos though.