WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the country is not “race-blind” and “we shouldn’t deceive ourselves that we’re race-blind,” but said the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president was a key moment in history.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and its partners have pushed North Korea for years to abandon its atomic ambitions, but the North has conducted two nuclear tests and now claims it has 2,000 centrifuges producing uranium for a new reactor.
North Korea announced Monday that it had tested an atomic weapon, a claim that if true would make it the latest member of the elite club of nuclear powers.
A timeline of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development: * December 2001: President Bush warns Iraq and North Korea they would be “held accountable” if they develop weapons of mass destruction. * Jan. 29, 2002: Bush labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an “axis of evil” in his State of the Union address. * Oct. 16: U.S. officials say North Korea admits having a secret uranium enrichment program, key to development of nuclear weapons. * Nov. 11: The U.S. and its key Asian allies -- Japan and South Korea -- decide to halt oil supplies to North Korea promised under a 1994 deal. * Dec. 12: North Korea announces it is reactivating nuclear facilities at Yongbyon that were frozen under the 1994 deal with the United States. * Jan. 10, 2003: North Korea says it will withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. * Feb. 6: North Korea says it has reactivated its nuclear facilities. * April 23: U.S. and North Korean envoys begin talks in Beijing to try to resolve standoff. * April 24: North Korea tells U.S officials privately that it has nuclear weapons and may test, export or use them depending on U.S. actions, according a senior American official.
