Spero T Lappas's HACC World Geography Blog

"Everywhere's been where it is ever since it was first put there. It's called geography." Terry Pratchett

Thursday, December 16, 2010

The Ninth Nuclear Power?

Recently, Stanford University physicist Siegfried Hecker wrote abpout his inspection of North Korea's nuclear facilities and announced that the country's level of advancement was far higher than suspected by the American public. There is no doubt, says Hecker, that NK's abilities to produce highly enriched uranium make it a significant player in the club of nuclear states. This is hardly news. In 2006 North Korea detonated its first known nuclear bomb, and since then it has made no secret of the fact that it intends to be and act like a nuclear power. As described in the wonderful (and terrifying) documentary Countdown to Zero, NK has long expressed a willingness to partner with other rogue states toward the goal of establishing a nuclear weapon delivery system. Particularly daunting is the threat of a NK and Pakistan alliance. Pakistan is a known nuclear state, it has far more weapons that NK, but it has paltry missle technology. NK, on the other hand, has been developing missle delivery systems for years. It is hard to imagine a more de-stabilizing development on the world stage than a combination of the highly aggressive North Korea and the politically disfunctional pakistan, directed to employing nuclear weapons against their perceived Western enemies.

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