Former US State Department special envoy for North Korea, Joseph Detrani, argued on the 17th (local time) that North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons could lead to the decision of neighboring countries such as South Korea and Japan to acquire their own nuclear weapons.
Former special envoy Ditrani wrote an article titled ‘The death of Abdul Kadir Khan does not stop the threat of nuclear conversion’ in The Hill, a US political media outlet.
In an article, former special envoy Detrani reviewed how the recent death of Dr. Khan, a national hero and designer of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb program, can help an individual or network transfer nuclear technology and know-how to rogue states and terrorist organizations pursuing nuclear weapons. pointed out that it is the right time to be
Dr. Khan trained as a metallurgical engineer in Europe and was hired by Urenco, a nuclear engineering consortium in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, to gain unique access and expertise in uranium centrifuges. He was stimulated by the news that his homeland Pakistan lost the war with India in 1971 and East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh. Pakistan succeeded in its first nuclear test in May 1998 under the guidance of Dr. Khan, making it the first Islamic country to possess nuclear weapons. Dr. Khan provided Iran with thousands of P-1 and P-2 centrifuges in addition to blueprints and parts for the Natanz nuclear facility in the late 1980s and 1990s, during the period of nuclear proliferation. He also provided North Korea with centrifuges and training and manuals for its highly enriched uranium program, which provided North Korea with another avenue for nuclear weapons in addition to its plutonium program. Libya has also received centrifuges and documents for its uranium enrichment program.
“Although Iraq and Syria also approached Dr. Khan, it was Iran, North Korea, and Libya that aggressively pursued relations with Dr. Khan,” said Detrani. In return for normalization, it gave up its nuclear weapons program. (On the other hand) Iran and North Korea have continued their programs.”
In particular, former special envoy Detrani said, “North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests and continues to reprocess spent fuel rods for plutonium for nuclear weapons. North Korea is estimated to have 40 to 60 nuclear weapons.” said.
“North Korea has never admitted that it has a highly enriched uranium program for nuclear weapons, but there is a modern uranium enrichment facility reported in Yongbyon, which is known to have thousands of rotary centrifuges,” he said.
North Korea is known to have provided Syria with the training, materials and support needed to build a plutonium reactor, and al-Qaeda has also attempted to acquire nuclear weapons and fissile materials from North Korea to create a dirty bomb.
“There are current concerns that other nation-states will generally attempt to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities for deterrence purposes,” said Detrani. Countries can decide they need their own nuclear weapons despite the United States’ nuclear deterrence promises.”
The same is true of Iran, he said, predicting that if Iran pursues a nuclear weapons program, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey are likely to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs.
“Especially if we want East and Middle East countries not to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs, we need to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons and that North Korea achieves complete and verifiable denuclearization,” said Detrani.
“It is logical to assume that terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda continue to seek nuclear and chemical weapons to attack the United States and its allies,” he said. argued that it should be
“The proliferation of nuclear weapons states and the possibility of nuclear weapons or fissile materials for dirty nights being acquired by rogue countries or terrorist organizations should be of the greatest concern to the United States and our allies,” he said.
(Washington = News 1)
