The Syrian-North Korean Nuclear Connection
Was the Israeli move the best to make, or should we have sent Obama to talk to the Syrians and North Koreans?
WASHINGTON — A Syrian nuclear reactor built with help from North Korea was weeks away from functioning, a top U.S. official said Thursday after lawmakers were briefed on the site destroyed last year by Israeli jets.
The official, who wanted anonymity, told The Associated Press that the facility was mostly completed but still needed significant testing before it could be declared operational.
Still, Syria’s ambassador to the United Kingdom denied that North Korea’s cooperation with Syria had any nefarious purpose…
…Intelligence officials told several House and Senate committees that the destroyed site was designed to produce a small amount of plutonium, a highly radioactive substance.
Plutonium-producing reactors are of international interest because the material can be used to make high-yield nuclear weapons or “dirty bombs” that disperse radioactive material when they explode, rendering an area potentially unsafe for humans for years.
The reactor was not finished when it was blown up, but U.S. intelligence officials had acquired videotape and other evidence to demonstrate that it resembled the nuclear reactor at Yonbyon, North Korea. No uranium — the fuel for a reactor — was evident on site.
Given Syria’s close links to Iran, we cannot rule out that the Iranians were also involved - it would be rather logical for Iran, under pressure on its own nuke program, to shuttle some of it over to Syria, which wasn’t nearly under the scrutiny that Iran is under. Also, North Korea needs money - of which Syria has none; as we haven’t noted a willingness on the part of North Korea to be charitible, we must presume that North Korea was getting something out of the deal…perhaps some Iranian petrodollars? Certainly, very extensive investigation is needed, and the hope is that our intelligence services are investing a lot into this.
We must ensure that of all the lunatic regimes in the world that North Korea be the last one of them to obtain nuclear weapons - diplomacy and diplomatic pressure, by all means, but when push comes to shove, we must be willing to act decisively to prohibit regimes like Syria’s or Iran’s from becoming nuclear.
30 comments April 24th, 2008
