Continuing with the theme of the last post, here is a video of North Korea destroying a water cooling tower at a nuclear facility as part of the recent nuclear disclosure agreement with the U.S. and the other six-party countries. U.S. State Department officials and IAEA representatives were invited to observe the event.
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According to this report (CNN – N. Korea destroys nuclear reactor tower) the event is being recognized as a milestone in the disarmament effort:
Nuclear experts say that the plant's destroyed central water-cooling tower would take a year or longer to rebuild if North Korea were to try using the plant again. “This is a critical piece of equipment for the nuclear reactor,” said analyst John Wolfsthal, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has been following North Korea since the 1980s. “Without this facility, the reactor can't operate and can't produce more plutonium for weapons.”
As I mentioned in the previous post, these are positive developments, but many issues remain to be addressed, including the possible proliferation of nuclear technology to other countries. The Carnegie Endowment and the National Committee on North Korea recently held a joint discussion on North Korea's nuclear program in which these concerns were raised (Policy Options for North Korea's Nuclear Program):
Gallucci expressed approval of recent breakthroughs with North Korea but remained highly dissatisfied with Pyongyang's lack of disclosure regarding the Syrian connection. Ford argued that varied policy approaches to North Korea have failed, necessitating more innovative policy solutions from the next U.S. administration.
The full transcript of the Carnegie event can be found here (PDF).
