What I Saw in North Korea and Why it Matters

Google Tech Talk (more info below)
March 28, 2011

Presented by Siegfried S. Hecker, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

ABSTRACT

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation, Negotiation and the human aspects of an estranged country.

My seventh trip to North Korea in seven years produced another surprise -- North Korea decided to build its own light-water reactor and uranium enrichment facility. During my first visit I was shown plutonium produced in its Yongbyon nuclear complex to convince me they have the bomb. For more than 30 years, Pyongyang has moved along parallel paths of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, opting to chose bombs over electricity. I will discuss how North Korea got the bomb, why it got it, and the prospects of whether or not it will give up the bomb. Finally, I will try to show with photos and stories of how North Korea is not such a hermit kingdom after all.

Siegfried S. Hecker is co-director of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Professor (Research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering. He is also director emeritus at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he served as director from 1986-1997 and senior fellow until July 2005. He received his B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in metallurgy from Case Western Reserve University. His current professional interests include plutonium research, cooperative nuclear threat reduction with the Russian nuclear complex, and global nonproliferation and counter terrorism. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of numerous professional societies and recently received the Presidential Enrico Fermi Award.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google tech talk
• nuclear proliferation
• atomic bomb
• nuclear power

[tipoomaster]

@Whatistheissue

Wait, what are the Russians doing to the Palestinians? And I don't think it makes it any better to inflict pain upon your own people, that's not much of an excuse. Like if I killed someone and said "At least he was also Canadian".

[tipoomaster]

@AtheismCentral

Which statement are you talking about?

[coopturn]

@infoibatorerosso So? What difference does that make? Are you a Nazi?

[peronk1]

Great lecture - I visited NK in 2010 and agree with many of Siegfried's observations

[davisoneill]

It isnt the DPRK that has to change its metality, it's the US ruling class that has to change. We see in Libya and Syria that the Anglo-Saxons take any military weakness as an opportunity to attack. The USA has overthrown many democratic governments, and has sponsored many genocides. The USA has 1 in 35 of its own people in its prison system (1 in 10 of Black people) including those out on licence. There are 1,500,000 homeless children. Why wouldn't the DPRK be afraid of such a gang?