WMD in North Korea

A CIA assessment delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on August 18 says that North Korea has a working nuclear bomb (see also the original remarks kept by the Federation of American Scientists).

Let's review: The CIA confirms that this country and its megalomaniacal leader possess nuclear weapons ready for use. They have sold such technology in the past to anyone who wanted it, and also use its strategic threat to blackmail neighbors and the United States at the diplomatic bargaining table.

There is no upside to this. The US has failed in its foreign policy to curb North Korea's nuclear ambition, and so North Korea has joined the nuclear club. N. Korea regards ambiguity about their possession of nuclear weapons to be a strategic advantage, so we will not obtain overt confirmation.

By the way, all the hub-bub during the yellowcake scandal was regarding the CIA's not correcting the White House's view that there was no material to possibly make nuclear weapons that might have left Nigeria, bound for Iraq. Here, we have a far worse warning of actual nuclear capability from the CIA -- and strangely, not only the the White House not pick it up, they are not pressing forward with it publicly. What gives? I hope that the answer is that, with Kim, they know they are dealing with a highly irrational character, and that kicking up a lot of dust on it just stengthens his hand. Nonetheless, I also hope they are aggressively pressing on the issue behind the scences and through covert means. Otherwise, it won't be long before N. Korea begins making demands at the diplomatic table that we aren't willing to concede. Or one of their bombs gets sold to someone we like even less.