N.Korea to US: Try Call Our Bluff - We Have Nukes
North Korea told the United States: "We have nuclear weapons."
According to unnamed US officials during talks in Beijing this week. "They said what we always knew -- that they do have (nuclear) weapons. That doesn't shock us. We've been saying that. Now they said it," according to a US Administration source.
North Korean negotiators told U.S. officials in Beijing it would export them or conduct a "physical demonstration " U.S. officials said today. CIA has estimated it had the materials for one or two devices.
According to one U.S. official said on anonymity, that Li Gun, deputy director in North Korea's Foreign Ministry for American affairs , took Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly aside and said to him: "We've got nukes. We can't dismantle them. It's up to you whether we do a physical demonstration or transfer them." U.S. officials have yet to pin down the exact meaning, whether it meant it would test a nuclear weapon.
Li also said the reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods is completed. US officials think it is a bluff but many analysts believed fuel rods can be used for two to three nuclear bombs within a few months.
Meanwhile Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would not be intimidated by "bellicose statements" or threats from Pyongyang.
North Korea said it was ready to settle the potential conflict but that depends on the United States dropping its hostile policy toward Pyongyang.
Friday, April 25, 2003
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