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Originally posted by Dionysus
How is North Korea tying into this? Or, is it at all?
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I'm confused with this too. I think N. Korea doesn't have anything to do with the situation in Iraq. (Although I could be wrong.. someone correct me if I am)
From what I understand, N. Korea signed an agreement w/ the U.S. (and maybe other countries???
) in 1994. I think the agreement was basically they were going to not produce nuclear weapons in exchange for programs and things like that for their country which might have been funded chiefly by the U.S. They have announced that they wanted to back out of the agreement recently and that is what is scary. In October North Korea revealed to the United States that it has a secret and active nuclear weapons program begun years after it promised to never again to pursue such a course.
From CNN.com: "North Korea, which the CIA believes already has enough fissile material for one or two bombs, is poised to extract enough plutonium from the spent fuel to produce four to eight more within a matter of months. It is unknown whether North Korea has ever actually constructed a nuclear weapon.
....
also from CNN.com : "The regime boasts a standing army of 1 million troops--the world's fourth largest--with an estimated 4.7 million more in reserve. It also keeps a massive store of artillery shells and hundreds of Scud missiles that it could load with biological and chemical agents and rain down on South Korea and the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed there. Some U.S. military officials believe that a conventional exchange with North Korea could result in as many as 1 million South Korean casualties."
I couldn't find a tie to Iraq, but I could be wrong. I think the N. Korea issue is about the breech of the agreement.