I know it took a while for me to get this online, but….
"North Korea may be producing fuel rods" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, December 25, 2013
SEOUL — Satellite imagery suggests that North Korea may have begun producing fuel rods for its recently restarted nuclear reactor, a US-based research institute said in a report published Tuesday.
They could be for energy but that is not the implication from the war paper.
Not like North Korea is under tightening sanctions or anything, right, and would need to find power at home any way they can?
The signs of new activity at North Korea’s main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, follow the country’s repeated assertions that it is strengthening its capabilities to produce nuclear arms….
The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University reported Tuesday on its website, 38 North, that it had reached that conclusion by analyzing commercial satellite images of the complex.
An old building once used to make fuel rods for the graphite-moderated reactor has been converted into a uranium-enrichment plant, which North Korea showed to visiting US nuclear specialists in 2010.
North Korea said it was enriching uranium to make a type of fuel needed for a separate light-water reactor it was building in Yongbyon. But highly enriched uranium can replace plutonium as fuel for nuclear weapons.
Well, at least the war profiteers will be happy.
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I've decided to purge the rest of the articles that have appeared since the last time I blogged to you about North Korea. Sorry, but I'm saying uncle over the execution of a traitor (looks like the North knows what to do to spies) over some sort of business intrigue that my worried pot-hollering-kettle media tells me is by-the-numbers propaganda with carefully staged events. I suppose they would know; they used to be the best at it. Looks to me like Jang might have been a western agent and Kim found out about it.
I also freaked out when I saw Rodman had returned because the sports channels were filled with criticism. Then he apologized for his rant and said it was because he was drunk. Thanks for helping the cause, Dennis (sigh).
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"North Korea rejects reunions plan; South proposed uniting families long separated" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, January 10, 2014
SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday rejected South Korea’s proposal to hold reunions of elderly relatives separated by the Korean War six decades ago, but it kept the door open for a possible thaw in relations between the two Koreas.
Must be global warming.
On Monday, President Park Geun Hye had proposed resuming the reunions of separated families in time for the Lunar New Year’s Day on Jan. 31, a traditional time for family gatherings in Korea, saying it would be an important first step toward improving relations on the divided peninsula.
It was Park’s first concrete overture toward North Korea since assuming office last year. She spent her early months as president taking a tough stance against the North, which conducted its third nuclear test two weeks before her inauguration in February.
That revision is not entirely true, and if you scroll into some older posts you will see for yourself. I've really tired of this kind of thing, folks. I guess that's why I'm not that into reading a Globe anymore.
Last spring, she warned of decisive retaliation when North Korea threatened nuclear and missile attacks against the South and its ally, the United States, and withheld any significant aid shipments until North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons.
In her proposal Monday, made at her first news conference as president, Park sweetened her overture with a promise to increase humanitarian aid for the impoverished North and to let South Korean civic groups help rebuild the North’s farm sector.
But on Thursday, North Korea sent the South a message saying that the mood was not right for holding family reunions.
It blamed South Korean news reports and analyst commentaries that included a scathing criticism of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and quoted senior South Korean government officials who worried about possible political instability in the North following the purge of Kim’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek. Jang was executed on Dec. 12 on charges of corruption and involvement in a plot to overthrow Kim’s government.
Who am I to criticize the Korean courts? I live in AmeriKa.
In rejecting the reunions, North Korea also bristled at the military exercises South Korea has conducted recently and plans to hold with the United States around early March. The North calls these drills rehearsals for invasion.
I can't imagine why they would take it that way, can you?
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I see from the hits no one cares about the new format. I will adjust.
