Threats from North Korea [Part 2]

I am going to start with the North Korea Nuclear Overview.

In the spring of 2003, U.S. intelligence detected activities around the Radiochemisty Laboratory, a reprocessing facility in Yŏngbyŏn-kun, that indicate North Korea was probably reprocessing the 8,000 spent fuel rods that had been in a temporary storage pond. In September 2003, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said that North Korea had completed the reprocessing of this spent fuel, which would give North Korea enough plutonium for about four to six nuclear bombs. In January 2004, a delegation of American private citizens confirmed that the cannisters in the temporary storage pond were empty.

Full Nuclear Overview is here.

Next we move on to North Korea's Biological Overview.

North Korea has a dedicated, national-level effort to achieve a BW capability and has developed and produced, and may have weaponized, BW agents in violation of the [Biological and Toxin Weapons] Convention. Despite the fact that its citizens are starving, the leadership in Pyongyang has spent large sums of money to acquire the resources, including a biotechnology infrastructure, capable of producing infectious agents, toxins, and other crude biological weapons. It likely has the capability to produce sufficient quantities of biological agents for military purposes within weeks of deciding to do so, and has a variety of means at its disposal for delivering these deadly weapons.

Full Biological Overview is here.

Next is the Chemical Overview.

This assessment ranks North Korea among the largest possessors of chemical weaponry in the world. If official reports and testimonies from North Korean defectors are to be believed, the DPRK military possesses between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons. (It is not clear, however, if this amount includes the munitions or only the CW agents themselves.) Reportedly, the CW agents in the DPRK arsenal include all of the major classes, such as phosgene (choking), hydrogen cyanide (blood), mustard (blister) and sarin (nerve agent).

Full Chemical Overview here.

Last but not least is the Missle Overview.

North Korea is the most advanced of the "late missile developers" and since the demise of the Soviet Union has probably become the greatest exporter of complete ballistic missile systems, components, and technology. Pyongyang received foreign assistance over the years, most notably from the former Soviet Union and China, but the complete details of all foreign assistance are still sketchy. The North Korean missile program is notable because there have been relatively few flight tests. North Korea has deployed about 600-800 Scud missile variants, about 150-200 Nodong missiles, and perhaps 10 Paektusan-1 missiles, which are more commonly known as Taepodong-1 missiles.

Full Missle Overview here.

The last link is to the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Missle maps of North Korea's facilities.

After looking over the information from these links, is there any doubt in anyones mind, that we need to be united in how we respond as an international community?

Others writing about North Korea: The Glittering Eye, American Future, The New Editor, QuandO, Right Truth, Bullwinkle Blog, Hot Air.

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