Blame Games

From FoxNews: Hans Blix: U.S. Not Committed to Nuke Treaty.

Nuclear "have-nots" complain that the Bush administration, in particular, has acted contrary to those commitments, by rejecting the nuclear test-ban treaty, for example.

Washington, for its part, wants the conference to focus on what it alleges are Iran's plans to build nuclear arms in violation of the treaty, and on North Korea's withdrawal from the treaty and claim to have nuclear bombs.

Blix told reporters there is "a great deal of concern" about North Korea and Iran among states without nuclear weapons.

But "that feeling of concern is somewhat muted by the feeling that the United States in particular, and perhaps some other nuclear weapons states, are not taking the common bargain as seriously as they had committed themselves to do in the past," he said.

UPDATE -- May 11: FoxNews reports today: North Korea Claims Step Toward Nukes.

North Korea said Wednesday it had completed removing spent nuclear fuel rods from a reactor at its main nuclear complex -- a move that could allow it to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium -- in the communist state's latest provocation amid a deadlock in disarmament talks.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the country had "successfully completed" removing 8,000 fuel rods from the reactor at Yongbyon-, according to a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Posted by Forkum at May 10, 2005 05:15 PM