Doves in the Bush administration argue that the Foreign Ministry statement had been mistranslated–after all, U.S. intelligence has detected no signs that reprocessing has begun. Hawks argue that Kim wants a nuclear arsenal. “They certainly intend to reprocess, which is their first public acknowledgment of a nuclear-weapons program,” said one senior administration official. At the White House, officials suspect the North was trying to be purposely ambiguous about whether it has started reprocessing. Either way, U.S. policy has tilted once more toward uncertainty about whether it’s worth talking at all.
