Blatant Reality

With North Korea shutting down its nuclear facilities, questions arise about where will all the atomic physicist go.

Unlike the arms engineers of the former Soviet Union, the North Korean experts are far from the forefront of their field. But they have honed skills in old technology that could spread with relative ease.

Washington and the North’s neighbors worry they could follow the path of Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan, who became a merchant of nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea itself.

A more immediate concern is that failing to assure the scientists’ future could give Pyongyang another reason to resist disarmament.

As with most solutions, more problems always seem to crop up.