Pick a Number Between One and Six

“Between one and six.” That’s the number of nuclear weapons that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believes North Korea to have, a rare public utterance on the estimated number of such weapons the Hermit Kingdom may possess.

That’s one of the reasons “we will maintain our nuclear deterrent,” Clinton said. But she added that she is confident that the six-party disarmament talks (China, North and South Korea, Japan, Russia, and the U.S.) that fell apart last year will continue.

A transcript of her speech is available at the State Department’s website. –JCL

Khaleej Times:

North Korea has as many as six nuclear weapons, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said as she pressed for international efforts to help denuclearize the volatile hermit country.

But Clinton also stressed that despite a recent new pact with Russia to reduce atomic stockpiles and a push for disarmament, the United States will keep nuclear arms so long as other countries have access to the weapons of mass destruction.

‘We will not unilaterally disarm. We will maintain our nuclear deterrent,’ she said during a speech Friday in Louisville, Kentucky.

In a rare reference by the chief US diplomat to the number of weapons held by North Korea, Clinton said Pyongyang had ‘between one and six nuclear weapons.’

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