U.S. MAY HAVE OVERESTIMATED NORTH KOREA'S PLUTONIUM
Helene Cooper
International Herald Tribune, June 1, 2008
An 18,000-page declaration submitted by North Korea to the United States is stirring debate about whether U.S. intelligence agencies previously overstated how much plutonium the Pyongyang government might have produced for its nuclear weapons program.
Bush administration officials have declined to comment on the declaration, which State Department officials say will take weeks to wade through, but they have indicated that North Korea is acknowledging it produced 37 kilograms of plutonium, or about 81 pounds.
That total would be more than the 30 kilograms that North Korea has previously acknowledged but somewhat less than the 40 kilograms to 50 kilograms that U.S. intelligence agencies had calculated it had produced. Estimates on how many nuclear bombs North Korea could wring from its plutonium program have ranged from 6 to 10.
Helene Cooper
International Herald Tribune, June 1, 2008
An 18,000-page declaration submitted by North Korea to the United States is stirring debate about whether U.S. intelligence agencies previously overstated how much plutonium the Pyongyang government might have produced for its nuclear weapons program.
Bush administration officials have declined to comment on the declaration, which State Department officials say will take weeks to wade through, but they have indicated that North Korea is acknowledging it produced 37 kilograms of plutonium, or about 81 pounds.
That total would be more than the 30 kilograms that North Korea has previously acknowledged but somewhat less than the 40 kilograms to 50 kilograms that U.S. intelligence agencies had calculated it had produced. Estimates on how many nuclear bombs North Korea could wring from its plutonium program have ranged from 6 to 10.
No one in the administration is prepared to accept the documents at face value, a Bush administration official said, and some intelligence analysts are particularly wary of the numbers they have seen so far. The official said that State Department negotiators were continuing to push the North to be as forthcoming as possible.
(...) [artículo aquí]
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