China registers Pyongyang threat
China claims close ally North Korea has processed sufficient plutonium to make a nuclear bomb, the Asian Wall Street Journal reports.
The news comes after North Korea was reported last week to have completed the reprocessing of 8,000 fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.
And on Thursday there were reports of tit-for-tat machine gun fire across the demilitarised zone.
Amid these reports, some commentators in Washington have forecasted that without a rethink on Pyongyang’s part, war could break on the Korean peninsula by year-end.
Chinese intelligence has said that the reclusive communist state owns enough weapons-grade plutonium and the components to add nuclear capacity to its missiles.
There has been a concerted diplomatic effort in recent weeks to convince Pyongyang that multilateral talks are the best way forward. But the North has been insistent that it will only talk turkey with the US and the US alone. In exchange for dismantling its nuclear programme, restarted last October, impoverished North Korea wants substantial food aid.
Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo has left Beijing for Washington, for talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
