Pyongyang
North Korea may have secretly sold Libya uranium so that it could build a nuclear bomb, diplomats said this week. Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi voluntarily scrapped his nuclear program in December and handed over to the U.S. 1.7 tons of enriched uranium—enough for one small nuke. United Nations inspectors at first assumed the material came from Pakistan, whose top nuclear scientist had admitted trading nuclear secrets on the black market. But evidence has since pointed to North Korea, bolstering Western fears that the secretive communist nation was raising cash by selling nuclear material. “It’s a definite possibility,” a diplomat said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Taking aim at Venezuela’s autocratFeature The Trump administration is ramping up military pressure on Nicolás Maduro. Is he a threat to the U.S.?
-
Comey indictment: Is the justice system broken?Feature U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan has indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying and obstructing Congress
-
Government shuts down amid partisan deadlockFeature As Democrats and Republicans clash over health care and spending, the shutdown leaves 750,000 federal workers in limbo
