Impoverished North Korea might resort to selling weapons-grade plutonium to terrorists for much-needed cash and that would be "disastrous for the world," the top US military commander in South Korea said yesterday.
General Leon LaPorte said the communist state may have harvested plutonium from a pool of 8,000 spent nuclear rods, which experts say could yield enough material for several atomic bombs.
The North's intent was a mystery, but "from the military stand point, they do have a capability that we must address," LaPorte told a forum in Seoul.
"And there is concern that North Korea, in its desire for hard currency, would sell weapons-grade plutonium to some terrorist organizations," he said. "That would be disastrous to the world."
US officials have already designated the isolated and impoverished North as a key proliferator of missiles, missile technology and other military hardware. The country says it has the right to sell missiles for cash but is willing to stop doing so if the US offers economic compensation.
Since last year, the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US have held three rounds of talks aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions, but no breakthrough has been reported.
A fourth round slated for September failed to go ahead because North Korea refused to attend.
North Korea has recently threatened to strengthen its "nuclear deterrent" to counter what it calls a US plot to launch a nuclear war against it.
It said it will return to nuclear talks when Washington drops a "hostile" policy toward the North. It seeks economic aid and US guarantees of nonaggression in return for giving up its nuclear desire.
In early 2003, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It has since said it completed reprocessing its 8,000 spent fuel rods. In September, a North Korean diplomat claimed that the country "weaponized" the nuclear fuel.
South Korean officials said North Korea was believed to have enough plutonium for two or three bombs. Some 33,000 US soldiers are based in South Korea -- a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended without a peace treaty.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS