This post is from October 2004. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

Article1 min read

North Korea and the Bomb Redux

Paul Kerr suggests that I need to make clear that there are 2 different time periods during which NK may have reprocessed spent nuclear fuel: before the 1994 Agreed Framework and after the 2002 ejection of inspectors. During the latter period, North Korea may have reprocessed up to 8,000 fuel rods which contain enough Pu for 4-6 nukes.

Paul thinks Kartman is almost only talking about what NK could have produced from the spent nuclear fuel reprocessed before the 1994 Agreed Framework.

I read the story as suggesting Kartman is talking about the whole period—something I find plausible given the trouble that the Chinese had with reprocessing plants. So we are going to get to the bottom of this and figure out 1. What Kartman meant and 2. Whether he is, figuratively, smoking rock.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

All posts by Jeffrey Lewis