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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Nuclear Tech Not a "New Capability" for North Korea, Experts Say


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In a file photo dated January 11, 2003, more than a million people gather on Kim Il Sung Square in the North Korean capital of P'yongyang to hear political leaders hail North Korea's decision to withdraw from the United Nations's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This week North Korea announced the successful test of a nuclear bomb, igniting global debate about the claim's accuracy but garnering little surprise from policy experts. In fact, proliferation analysts have assumed that the isolated communist country has had nuclear capabilities for more than a decade.

Photograph courtesy AFP/Getty Images