North Korea has just announced that it has manufactured nuclear weapons and that it does not plan to participate in multilateral talks sought by the Bush Administration. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and have manufactured nukes to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK (North Korea)."
The Bush Administration's anti-proliferation policy appears to be faltering in both Iran and North Korea. Meanwhile, the just-released FY 2006 budget cuts U.S. contributions to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. The CTBTO has responsibility for global nuclear weapons test monitoring.