North Korea intelligence split U.S. agencies
The New York Times
TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2005
WASHINGTON This article was reported by William J. Broad, Douglas Jehl, David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, and written by Jehl and Sanger. Chris Buckley contributed reporting from Beijing.
Early this year, U.S. spy satellites detected a spike in suspicious tunneling activity at a highly secretive military site in the mountains of North Korea.
It alarmed some of the government's top nuclear analysts, who saw it as a sign that North Korea might be preparing to make good on threats to conduct its first test of a nuclear weapon. There was even tantalizing talk among some officials in Washington that the North Koreans were so far along in preparing for an underground detonation that they had built a reviewing stand for dignitaries to witness the earth tremble.
The prospect of an imminent test became a crucial point in briefings by the Bush administration to its Asian allies and to China, arguing that the North Korean threat was growing rapidly and that they needed to increase pressure to resume six-party talks aimed at disarmament. After weeks of diplomatic maneuvering, North Korea agreed to resume the talks on Tuesday.
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"Right now, this is the time to have these bilateral consultations," the top U.S. negotiator at the talks, Christopher Hill, told reporters Monday before meeting with the North Korean deputy foreign minister, Kim Kye Gwan, in the afternoon. "We are just trying to get acquainted, to review how we see things coming up and compare notes."
more:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/25/news/intel.phpSuper long, but worth a read...shows the CIA VS Pentagon,etc still at odds.