Bill Clinton

Newsmax October 19 2002

Light water nuclear reactors provided to North Korea under a 1994 deal negotiated by the Clinton administration have the capacity to generate enough nuclear fuel to produce
almost 100 nuclear bombs per year, a 1999 congressional study warned.

The study was undertaken by the House North Korea Advisory Group, chaired by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y. Members of the panel included Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., then chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Christopher Cox, R-Calif., then chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

In its November 1999 report to the speaker of the House, the Advisory Group sounded the alarm about North Korea's nuclear weapons program, cautioning that the "Agreed Framework" that President Clinton had promised would derail Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program had backfired.

"Through the provision of two light water reactors [LWRs] under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the United States, through KEDO, will provide North Korea with the capacity to produce annually enough fissile material for nearly 100 nuclear bombs, should the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] decide to violate the Nonproliferation Treaty [NPT]," the Advisory Group warned.

The report explained:

"If the 1994 Agreed Framework is implemented and two LWRs are eventually built and operated in North Korea, the reactors could produce close to 500 kilograms of plutonium in spent reactor fuel each year; enough for nearly 100 bombs annually if North Korea decides to break its obligations and reprocess the material."

Officials in Pyonyang acknowledged this week that North Korea had indeed broken its obligations under the Clinton accord and are now rapidly proceeding with a full-blown nuclear weapons program.

The Advisory Group further cautioned:

"Although the 1994 Agreed Framework was essentially aimed at eliminating North Korea's ability to make nuclear weapons, there is significant evidence that nuclear weapons development is continuing, including its efforts to acquire uranium enrichment technologies and its nuclear-related high explosive tests."

In one of the Advisory Group's most chilling observations, the report warned that since the implementation of the Clinton accord, North Korea had made significant progress in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile fleet capable of targeting the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction:

"In the last five years, North Korea's missile capabilities have improved dramatically. North Korea has produced, deployed and exported missiles to Iran and Pakistan, launched a three-stage missile [Taepo Dong 1], and continues to develop a larger and more powerful missile [Taepo Dong 2].

"Unlike five years ago, North Korea can now strike the United States with a missile that could deliver high explosive, chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapons. Currently, the United States is unable to defend against this threat."

The report also features a bar graph that shows a direct correlation between increases in Clinton administration aid and North Korea's enhanced ICBM capacity.

The Advisory group also contended that the "Agreed Framework" had made North Korea "the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the Asia-Pacific region."

"In an astonishing reversal of nine previous U.S. administrations, the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1994, committed not only to provide foreign aid for North Korea, but to earmark that aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion," the House report noted.

To read the full Speaker's Report by the House North Korean Advisory Group, go to: http://www.house.gov/international_relations/nkag/report.htm

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