Hecker has estimated that North Korea has enough plutonium to make several crude nuclear bombs.
For instance, the building housing the centrifuges Hecker saw was vacant in April 2009, when Pyongyang ejected international inspectors.
Mr. HECKER: In almost all cases, the decision to go nuclear has been one of a regional security concern.
But more important, says Siegfried Hecker, are possible local conflicts that nations face.
Mr. Hecker said North Korean officials told him that the centrifuges had begun producing nuclear fuel at the site enriched to 3.5% purity.
WSJ: North Korea Nuclear Find Raises Fears It Will Share With Iran
But some aren't sure if engagement can work, given North Korea's choice of "bombs over electricity, " as American scientist Siegfried Hecker puts it.
While it appeared to be for electricity generation purposes, Mr Hecker said the facility could be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium for bombs.
BBC: North Korea nuclear: US vows to 'defend self and South'
Beijing supplied the centrifuge technology that so impressed Hecker this month.
In November 2010, North Korea showed U.S. scientist Siegfried Hecker that it was making progress in developing the skill to use uranium as a fuel for nuclear weapons.
Officials gave Mr. Hecker a tour of a laboratory that housed thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium to a purity level required for use as weapons fuel.
Mr. Hecker, who was shown a uranium-enrichment facility when he last visited the North in November 2010, said the rocket launch "makes a mockery" of the Feb. 29 agreement.
When Hecker was shown a 2, 000-centrifuge plant in November 2010, he could not tell if it was operating at all, let alone producing low-enriched uranium for fuel purposes, as claimed.
This will create new issues for those companies in industries like logistics and construction where there is much interaction with officials, says Charles Hecker at Control Risks, an international risks consultancy.
His mother, Cynthia, has recently taken another lodger into their crowded home: a young man named Isaac Hecker who, like Henry, appears unsettled as to what manner of life he will lead.
It's a bargain that has remained largely intact for 35 years, says Siegfried Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where much of the US' nuclear weapons research has taken place.
The concerns were sparked by a report released Saturday by Stanford physicist Siegfried Hecker that he saw some 2, 000 centrifuges organized in cascades at a North Korean facility he visited earlier this month.
WSJ: North Korea Nuclear Find Raises Fears It Will Share With Iran
In a November 2010 report following his visit to Yongbyon, Mr Hecker said that based on what he saw, he believed North Korea could "resume all plutonium operations within approximately six months" at Yongbyon if so inclined.
BBC: North Korea nuclear: US vows to 'defend self and South'
Before talk of a Syrian connection, an article in the March issue of Arms Control Today by Siegfried Hecker and William Liou listed the many ways North Korea's nuclear expertise could be of use to Iran, which also has suspect nuclear ambitions.
Mr. SIEGFRIED HECKER (Former Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory): The bottom line of the Non-Proliferation Treaty--in fact, of the proliferation world--I think, could be simply stated by the more fingers on the nuclear trigger, the more dangerous a world it is for everyone.
The group includes Sig Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Charles Pritchard, a former State Department pointman for North Korea who has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's Korean tactics since he left his diplomatic post last year.
Part of the reason the agreement fell apart was because the US did not believe Pyongyang was fully disclosing all of its nuclear facilities - a suspicion later bolstered when North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon to US scientist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.
BBC: North Korea nuclear: US vows to 'defend self and South'
That will be healthy for everyone to keep in mind while Mr. Pritchard visits at the invitation of Pyongyang with a ballyhooed private delegation that also includes Stanford professor John Wilson Lewis and Sigfried Hecker, the former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Deja vu all over again in North Korea
Mr. Hecker, the Stanford physicist, estimated that the centrifuges he saw on his Nov. 12 visit to North Korea's Yongybyon nuclear complex could produce around two tons of low-enriched uranium per year, or around 88 pounds of highly enriched uranium, nearly enough for a single atomic weapon.
WSJ: North Korea Nuclear Find Raises Fears It Will Share With Iran
Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist based at Stanford University who has visited North Korea's nuclear facilities seven times, emphasized at a conference in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday that China is the only country that can penalize North Korea if it chooses to, saying Beijing "holds the key to the price" North Korea will pay if it moves forward with its weapons pursuit.
应用推荐