I didn't finish a couple of ideas, sorry. > > > Then again, the DPRK kept on making bombs anyway. > > Again, that's not quite accurate. Before the plutonium producing reactor > was shut down, and the spent fuel rods were quarantined, it is likely that > North Korea processed enough plutonium for one or two bombs. But, that was > before 1994; the plutonium reprocessing stopped at that point.
Its true that they had started a new process for producing bomb fuel. That process is slow, and may yield enough material for another bomb in 2-3 years. And, we verify that they were doing this when they threw it in our faces. Do you actually think that was a victory for us? > > So, in reality, N. Korea already has a distributed and hidden WMD pointed > at S. Korea for the last 20-30 years. The inclusion of 1-2 A-bombs doubled > this capacity. That is, indeed, troubling. But, it is not the same as > increasing the destructive capacity from a few thousand to 200k deaths. > > Troop movements, panic buying of canned food and bottled water and Seoul, > and statements by both South Koreans and American officials indicate that > bombing the nuclear reactors was a real option at the time, even though the results would have been devastating. Seriously weighing the known cost of Korean lives that would result from an attack against the potential risk of losing a similar number of Americans from a smuggled A-bomb is not a matter of ignoring the evil of the N. Korean regiem. It is a candid assessment of how limited the US's options are. The fact that we don't have that worry with Iraq is a positive, and is one of the arguements for a war with Iraq. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
