North Korean poster shows U.S. Capitol under fire

North Korea's 'Dear Leader'

While more than a million of his people starved to death in the last decade, he spent billions on gigantic monuments and elaborate stadium spectacles to deify his father and himself. He's a movie producer who says he has always wanted to direct. And he once sent thugs to kidnap a South Korean actress and her director husband so he could force them to help build his country's film industry. [He's clearly his father's son:] The Great Leader had an insatiable craving for adulation. By the late '80s he had erected more than 34,000 monuments to himself. His photograph was displayed in every building and pinned to the clothing of every citizen, right over the heart. Benches where he'd once sat were sealed in glass and turned into relics. [Source: Peter Carlson (Washington Post Staff Writer), "Sins of the Son: Kim Jong Il's North Korea Is in Ruins, But Why Should That Spoil His Fun?", Washington Post, May 11, 2003, p. D1]

North Korea learned about n-weapon threats firsthand from McArthur and Truman

The North Koreans had learned from the nuclear diplomacy of the Korean War. During the war General Douglas MacArthur, who had been in charge of the UN troops, was sacked by US President Harry Truman because he had publicly stated nuclear weapons could be used on China to end the war. Even Truman later made veiled threats that nuclear weapons might be used in the conflict, to speed up armistice talks. [Source: Troy Lennon (MATP), "How outsiders snuck into the nuclear club", The Daily Telegraph (Australia), June 20, 2006, p. 47]

Population: 22 million

Socialist dictatorship.

A highly secretive state that has isolated itself from the rest of the world for decades.

NPT: Joined in 1985, but only submitted to inspections beginning in 1992. In January 2003, it pulled out..

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: UNKNOWN

North Korea may have produced enough plutonium for 3 to 6 nuclear weapons and is producing more plutonium at a reactor it took out of mothballs in 2002. The CIA estimates North Korea has 1 or 2 nuclear bombs..

NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES:

-- North Korea began producing plutonium for nuclear weapons in the 1970s. In October 2002, the United States said North Korea had admitted to a secret long-running uranium enrichment project. The country has extensive natural uranium deposits.

-- Under a 1994 accord with the United States, North Korea agreed to freeze plutonium production in return for two proliferation-resistant nuclear power plants and delivery of fuel oil.

-- In December 2002, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors and subsequently quit the NPT. North Korea is also suspected of running a highly enriched uranium program. Six-party talks, among the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas, are set to resume this week..

DELIVERY SYSTEM

-- North Korea has a highly sophisticated ballistic missile program. It has deployed short-range missiles with ranges of up to 620 miles and has tested one with an 800-mile range. Technology is mostly derived from Soviet Scud designs.

-- It has also conducted a partially successful test of an intermediate-range system (Taepo Dong-1). It may be working on a Taepo Dong-2, which if fully developed could deliver a small payload to California.

-- North Korea is the worlds leading exporter of ballistic missiles and has sold missiles and components to Egypt, Iran, Libya, Pakistan and Syria.

[Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, "The dangerous world of nuclear weapons", FEBRUARY 22, 2004, p. A21]

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Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: How to Deal With a Nuclear North Korea -- August 2003 paperback -- The authors of this study have a worthy goal: to completely transform the nature of the world's relationship with North Korea. Although appreciative of previous attempts to freeze the North's provocative nuclear program, O'Hanlon and Mochizuki see the faults in past efforts, and make a strong case for a new way to bring a stable peace to the peninsula and to introduce the so-called Hermit Kingdom to the international community.

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The Two Koreas (Revised Edition) -- Jan 2002 paperback -- journalist and contemporary historian Don Oberdorfer (international studies, Johns Hopkins U.) updates his 1997 account of how the two halves of the ancient and homogeneous people, thoughtlessly divided at the end of World War II, have grappled with each other for advantage and supremacy and dealt with the powerful forces all around them.