Pyongyang
North Korea said last week that it had reprocessed all of its 8,000 spent rods from nuclear power plants into bomb-grade material. If the claim is true, it means North Korea has enough plutonium to build two to three nuclear bombs within a few months, doubling the estimated size of its arsenal. Western officials fear that the desperately poor nation might sell the bombs to terrorist groups. The admission prompted former U.S. defense secretary William Perry, an expert on the region, to criticize the Bush administration for failing to contain North Korea. “I’m damned if I can figure out what the policy is,” Perry told The Washington Post. North Korea’s nuclear program “poses an imminent danger of nuclear weapons being detonated in American cities.” The U.S. has sought to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear program without offering inducements or entering into negotiations.
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.
-
‘The worry is far from fanciful’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
How are Americans bracing for the end of SNAP?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Millions depend on supplemental federal food funds that are set to expire this month, as the government shutdown begins to be acutely felt
-
Book review: ‘Joyride: A Memoir’Feature A journalist’s story of how she chased and accomplished her dreams
