Word: uranium
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...even if all goes well, those steps will lead to the vexing question of whether the North is engaged in another nuclear-weapons program-one not addressed by the agreement-that involves processing highly enriched uranium, not plutonium, to make bombs. The U.S. confronted Pyongyang in 2002 with intelligence it claimed to have about the program, and according to U.S. diplomats at the time, Pyongyang confirmed it did indeed exist. Since then, the North has denied it has such a program-and now even Washington appears less certain. Last week, Joseph DeTrani, a key intelligence official, stunned a Senate panel...
...Hard-liners who had pushed for the isolation of North Korea pounced, suggesting the Administration was downplaying the uranium program to smooth the way for talks with the North. However, Hill said that while the U.S. lacks hard evidence, it intends to press Pyongyang for "complete clarity" on the program. Indeed, rather than lightening up on the North, U.S. Treasury Department officials appear poised to issue permanent sanctions against Banco Delta Asia, the Macau bank where about $24 million in assets allegedly belonging to North Korean officials have been frozen on grounds that the money is linked to illicit North...
...strong new team of career diplomats, Rice prevailed on Iraq to invite Iran to a regional conference on security and then swiftly agreed to attend, unwinding Washington's vow just a few weeks ago that it would have no direct contact with Tehran until it stopped enriching uranium...
...Proponents of the Bush Administration's more hawkish previous policy pounced, all but suggesting that the uranium program was being downplayed so as not to disrupt ongoing talks. John Bolton, former ambassador to the U.N., wrote that "there has been no suggestion that the original intelligence from 2002 has been contradicted or discredited" - which was true - and called on President Bush "sooner rather than later" to "tell us what he thinks about the intelligence, and the direction of his own [North Korea] policy...
...Still, in a first-things-first process, the focus for now remains on getting the North to verifiably dismantle its existing reactor, which has allowed it to build the six to ten bombs the U.S. believes it has. Getting to the point where the alleged uranium program is the only stumbling block to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula would be, by itself, a significant diplomatic victory. But as Hill himself is the first to acknowledge, it's a long way from here to there...