Seoul: We were just playing with matches!

ìSouth Koreans Repeat: We Have No Atom Bomb Program,î by James Brooke, NYT, 4 September, p. A3.

File this one under ìdisingenuousî: now the South Korean government scientists who enriched some weapons-grade uranium said they did it only because they ìwere curious.î

Yes, it was a small speck and yes the experiment occurred four years ago, but South Korea has engaged in secret bomb works before, having done it in the early 1970s when they feared the U.S. was getting soft on nukes and protecting them from the North.

Korean popular culture loves the myth that itís the ìoutsidersî known as Japan and the U.S. who constantly thwart Koreaís nuclear ambitions. As we draw down our troops on the peninsula, I say let the South Koreans have that enriched uranium yellow cake and eat it too. If theyíre right and North Korea is secretly in love with them, it will all work out in the end without any U.S. troops dying for this goofball society.