Palin's Stance on Missile Defense Just Went Up on Importance: North Korea a Fully Fledged Nuclear Power

Was there any doubt? The headline.

Experts: North Korea a Fully Fledged Nuclear Power

The new reality has emerged in off-hand remarks and in single sentences buried in lengthy reports. Increasing numbers of authoritative experts — from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the U.S. Defense Secretary — are admitting that North Korea has miniaturized nuclear warheads to the extent that they can be launched on medium-range missiles, according to intelligence briefings.

This puts it ahead of Iran in the race for nuclear attack capability and seriously alters the balance of power between North Korea’s large but poorly equipped military and the South Korean and U.S. forces ranged against it. “North Korea has nuclear weapons, which is a matter of fact,” the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, said this week. “I don’t like to accept any country as a nuclear weapon state we have to face reality.”

That is why North Korea told Russia to stick it.

And that is why Obama is scrambling now on how to find a way to deal with North Korea.

TOKYO (AFP) — US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in a telephone talk Friday discussed North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons threat, according to officials in Tokyo.

Obama in the 15-minute conversation also agreed to visit Tokyo in the second half of the year, a plan welcomed by Aso, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

"President Obama told (Aso) that he highly praised the close cooperation between the United States and Japan over the missile launch by North Korea, and that he would like to continue the close cooperation," the statement said.

"Prime Minister Aso replied that it was good for the United Nations Security Council to jointly send a strong statement without delay" against North Korea's recent rocket launch, the statement said.

Related Links:

The New Survivor Reality Show: Will Russia Become Isolated by North Korea's Development of its Nuclear Program?

N Korea, China may be in cahoots

Tenet's Testimony Before Senate Committee New York Times, February 6, 2002