The Nuclear Club Gets Smaller
the cia on the kimchee bomb
By streiff Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Back in October, North Korea claimed to have popped a nuke and to have officially joined the nuclear club. Within a couple of days there was widespread speculation that the test was unsuccessful.
Because of the small seismic signature two schools of thought developed. Either the test was unsuccessful resulting in a suboptimal detonation or, my personal view, it was a large quantity of conventional munitions detonated to give the illusion that North Korea had a nuke.
Now CIA Director Michael Hayden has rendered his opinion:
"The United States does not recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," Hayden was quoted as saying by a South Korean defense official in the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper. "It's because the nuclear test last year was a failure."
Hayden was speaking to South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo on his stop in Seoul as part of visits to South Korea, Japan and China, JoongAng Ilbo said.
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The Nuclear Club Gets Smaller 4 Comments (0 topical, 4 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
but from what we've seen from the lefties they'd be happier with a surprise nuke attack than with us whacking someone we thought had a nuke.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
DJN: DJ CIA: Chief Was Misquoted On N Korea Nuclear Test
(Dow Jones 03/28 14:43:43)SEOUL (AP)--A CIA spokesman Wednesday disputed statements in a South Korean newspaper that were attributed to the organization's chief, Director Michael Hayden.
"The press accounts of what Director Hayden said are not accurate," Mark Mansfield said. He would not elaborate.
The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted the U.S. CIA chief as saying Washington does not recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state because its underground atomic test last Oct. 9 failed. The newspaper reported that Hayden made the comment to South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo during a meeting in Seoul, citing an unidentified defense ministry official.
"The United States will not recognize North Korea as a nuclear-armed state because Pyongyang's nuclear test last year was a failure," it quoted him as saying.
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Given the CIA's track record, I'd guess that Hayden's evaluation means that the NoKo's really have a couple of hundred nukes in hardened silos...