North Korea destroys nuclear reactor tower

[Terri]

By AP STAFF
Associated Press
June 27, 2008

YONGBYON, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Friday, blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.

An explosion at the base of the cylindrical structure sent the tower collapsing into a cloud of white and gray smoke that billowed into blue skies as international journalists and diplomats looked on, according to video footage filmed by international video news agency Associated Press Television News.

The demolition of the 60-foot-tall cooling tower at the North's main reactor complex is a response to U.S. concessions after the North delivered a declaration Thursday of its nuclear programs to be dismantled.

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[MISSL]

I think we can chalk one up to GWB on this one. Now are the Dems aor anyone paying attention. Probably not!

[schillerbjr]

GOD BLESS President George W. Bush!

[Cynical Pete]

The elder George Bush kept saying Saddam Hussien just doesn't get the message. He got it a little late. Kim Jong-il and Col. Muammar al-Qadhafi of Libya got the message in time. Now let's hope Mahmūd Ahmadinejād of Iran get's the word before his neck gets stretched and I don't mean from gawking.

[STEELMAN]

And let's hope that demolition was not a fake out and another exists somewhere else.

Wonder what the "concessions" are going to cost us? I don't trust them!

[yumyumcat]

Your name's Cynical Pete...and I'm usually the optimist, but now I'm the cynic!

I doubt Ahmadijad will give it up. He's another Hitler and has made no secret that he would love to blow Israel and the US off the face of this earth.

I don't know how all this is going to pan out, but Israel's doing the right thing by not backing down, showing their forces and I'm rambling on here...,sorry about that.

In any case, I do hope that this wasn't some aborted reactor that was never completed.

Concessions?? I'm not so sure, but I know one of the the first things they'll be asking for is FOOD, lots of it.

[Amawalk John]

If the demolition wasn't a fake, it will be the first time the North Koreans have acted in a straightforward way since 1950.

Makes a nice picture for the newspapers, though.

[yumyumcat]

If the demolition wasn't a fake, it will be the first time the North Koreans have acted in a straightforward way since 1950.

Makes a nice picture for the newspapers, though.

Looks great for our President too. He needs a break. *sigh*

[RINOs Gotta Go]

Communist North Korea forgot to destroy another one very visible item that is behind its nuclear weapons program: their Communist Party.

So, does that mean Communist North Korea will from now on abandon all of its nuclear weapon program for good? Yeah, sure... when the sun rises from the west and pigs fly across the sky. Have we not been down that road before with those Commies for the n-th time?

The symbolic tower explosion came just 20 months after Pyongyang shocked the world by detonating a nuclear bomb in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power.

Do we know if they have any really deep underground nuclear weapon facilities that they are hiding from us? Is there an accountability program to go along with this, yet another, concession for free food and free moola from the Americans?

[Charie]

The destruction of the cooling tower, which carries off waste heat to the atmosphere, is another step forward but not the most technically significant, because it is a simple piece of equipment that would be easy to rebuild.

"Trust but verify."

~ R. Reagan