The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued its latest report on North Korea’s nuclear program, with its usual language expressing “grave concern” about any ongoing nuclear developments which might be active.
These reports on North Korea are a lot less specific than the IAEA reports one would be used to seeing on Iran, which is awash in IAEA inspectors since the nuclear deal. The IAEA has not a single inspector in North Korea, meaning everything in the report is based on second-hand reports and allegations.
Which means the IAEA report is in great measure just a reiteration of media reports we’ve already seen, with the conclusion that they haven’t seen any indication North Korea has stopped all nuclear activity. With no inspectors, they don’t really know, however.
The watchdog says that North Korea’s nuclear power plant is believed to still be running. It likely is since there’s never been report of a shutdown. The other speculations about activity are based heavily on media reports of what’s been seen in satellite images, and what third parties have guessed those may imply.
Well you can’t prove a negative, just ask Saddam. On the other hand won’t they have thermal images of the plant? If it is cold then production is stopped or at a very low level. They must be able estimate the maximum level of production?
Right. Saddam was a saint.
He didn’t have any nukes. And he was fine when he was our tool.
He sent 100 scud missiles to Israel.
That means he had nukes and he wasn’t our tool? You should change your name to Sir John MIGA.
That means he had to go. Like Hitler and Tojo, DEAD.
I know who you are troll.
You have nothing, so now come the ad homs. Very familiar behaviour
here on GTM.
I was replying to nothing.
I would rather have Saddam in power, 6 trillion dollars our pockets and thousands of young Americans still alive.
You should run for President (20 years ago).
That’s some great logic. Who in this world is a saint?
The US and North Korea agreed on a modest but important short term goal of deescalation: that means North Korea would not test missiles(by firing them ) and would not test bombs (by making them go bang). It does not mean North Korea would start disarming. Disarmament would come at the end of successful negotiations – in other words peace.
So the main approach of the opponents of deescalation is to present the deal as something else: it pushes the narrative that North Korea promises to disarm and is then caught lying and deceiving us because they are not disarming. As the Reuters article says: However, the country has given no indication it is willing to give up its weapons unilaterally as the Trump administration has demanded. .
We are not yet at the stage where North Korea should disarm and where we should be verifying that. We’re at the stage where the Koreas are negotiating and improving ties and we try to stop that.