DPRK nuke activity sparks fear
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E-mail Global Times, October 22, 2010
The Foreign Ministry of China and the DPRK embassy in Beijing were unavailable Thursday for immediate comment on the Chosun Ilbo report.
The report came shortly after Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of Kim Jong-il, was introduced as the likely successor to the leadership. The junior Kim was made a four-star general and promoted to a key post last month.
There is speculation that the DPRK may bolster nuclear weapons in line with the country's military-first policy to consolidate the younger Kim's succession, South Korea media reports said.
"Taking Stock: North Korea's Uranium Enrichment Program," a report released earlier by the Institute for Science and International Security, a US think tank, said that DPRK "has moved beyond laboratory-scale work" and has the capability to build a "pilot-scale" plant to enrich uranium.
Over the weekend, DPRK, however, expressed its willingness to resume the six-nation disarmament talks, but would not be "hasty" because the US and some other parties were "not ready."
Choon Heum-choi, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told the Global Times that "The North is likely to launch a nuclear bomb test in the near future if the Six-Party Talks don't proceed well and North Korea's promise to rejoin the talks is not sincere."
Lv Chao, with the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the information was unreliable, and more nuclear weapon tests would only damage Pyongyang's international image and situation.
"North Korea has placed a clear priority on developing its economy. And it needs a stable and peaceful environment at a time when its preparation for leadership succession is going well and the relations between China and North Korea are totally recovered," he said.
It is unnecessary for DPRK to provoke the US and South Korea and hurt China by launching a nuclear test at this time, he said.
Peng Guangqian, a military strategy specialist at the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Science, told the Global Times that it is possible that disseminating speculations is aimed at creating trouble for DPRK, by messing with the relationship between China and DPRK and setting barriers to the Six-Party Talks.
"Unrest or a regime collapse has not occurred in North Korea as expected by the US and its regional ally South Korea," Peng said. "It is likely that the West is attempting to mount pressure on the Korean Peninsula and make the situation proceed in a desired direction."
