Anju Links for 12 April 2007

*   Shocking.   North Korea wants another 30 days to shut down Yongbyon, now that the deadline is half a week away.  Most media accounts are focusing on North Korea’s agreement to take back U.N. inspectors, though it’s not clear if they’ll have access to more than this one site, and we’ve certainly learned that the acceptance of U.N. inspectors is a highly reversible development.  The more time passes, the more this looks like something less than the first Agreed Framework.  So how long would it really take to shut down Yongbyon?  Read the story at the next link.

*   The Final Word on North Korea’s HEU Admission.   I think we can finally put one of the doctrinaire HEU atheists’ arguments to rest, thanks to Tong Kim, one of the translators who was there to hear North Korea admit  it.

In response to inquires from several news organizations, I have said that I believed then and still believe that the United States had irrefutable evidence to support the charges Mr. Kelly made concerning North Korea’s pursuit of a covert HEU program to develop nuclear weapons. I also said that after listening to Kang’s response at that meeting the U.S. delegation, including myself and two other members on the U.S. team who listened to Kang both in Korean and English interpretation provided by the North Korean side, concluded that Kang had acknowledged the U.S. charges laid out against the DPRK.

My conclusion was not based on a single particular phrase or sentence but on the totality of Kang’s statements, — including several revealing sentences of a blunt language and unreserved expressions, and their nuances, which all helped convince me of the foundation of his acknowledgment.

Enough already.  They admitted it.