N. Korea: Nuclear issue could be solved with talks

UNITED NATIONS — A top North Korean foreign affairs official says his government “remains consistent in its position to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.” Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon said here Sept. 27 that his country has “honored its commitments” to agreements on the issue “in good faith.”

In late September, however, the six-party agreements involving North and South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States broke down. The U.S. announced that it would not officially remove North Korea from its list of terror-sponsoring states, violating one of the key requirements agreed to by the six governments. Instead, the Bush administration demanded that Korea allow inspectors to search throughout the country for nuclear materials, something that was never agreed to in the six-party talks.

Diplomats say the searches that the U.S. is demanding, forcing North Korea to grant inspectors sweeping, unlimited access to the country, are a grave violation of its sovereignty. Nuclear proliferation expert David Albright said the U.S. demands are nothing more than a “license to spy.”

North Korea has stayed generally consistent in its positions on the nuclear issue. But the U.S. has shifted its demands, perhaps indicating a power struggle within the Bush administration.

The six-party talks were held in several rounds. The most recent, at the end of 2007, ended with participants in high spirits as a deal was finally reached: North Korea would declare all its nuclear facilities and disable them, while the U.S. would take North Korea off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, normalize relations and eventually help in the construction of light water reactors to produce electric power, among other things. All of this was to occur on an “action-for-action” basis, in which each side would take a single step at a time, to ensure trust.

Before reversing itself, the Bush administration had declared that North Korea was not a terror-sponsoring state, and in turn Korea stopped enriching plutonium, blew up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, invited International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into the country, and listed its nuclear facilities.

But when the U.S. demanded the searches and reneged on its promise to remove Korea from the terror list, North Korea’s leaders reactivated its nuclear processing and asked IAEA inspectors to leave.

The North Korean government has become increasingly frustrated with U.S. policy as well as with South Korea’s policy under a new right-wing administration. North Korean leaders are now questioning whether it is wise for them to disable nuclear processing plants — which they say are generally used to produce energy — when there can be no guarantee that promised compensatory energy aid will be received.

In addition, it is concerned about threatening moves by the U.S. and a South Korean arms buildup, and argues that it needs to defend itself. On Oct. 6, a U.S. air carrier group arrived in South Korean waters, officially for an international fleet exhibit. At the same time, South Korea’s president announced a 7.5 percent increase in military spending.

According to North Korea’s official Korea Central News Agency, “The U.S. massive deployment of its naval and air forces in and around South Korea proves that the war scenario to make a surprise preemptive attack on the DPRK [North Korea] has been rounded off through various war exercises … including Key Resolve, Foal Eagle and Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises [with South Korea].”

North Korean leaders and others suspect that the U.S. is storing nuclear weapons in South Korea. North Korea argues the whole peninsula needs to be denuclearized.

Here at the UN, Pak said U.S. insistence on unilateral inspection would disarm North Korea and set back denuclearization of the peninsula.

Most recently, Washington dispatched emissary Christopher Hill to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, apparently hoping to cobble together some kind of deal. It may represent yet another tactical flip-flop by the Bush administration. At press time, no details of his meetings had been released.

North Korea, said Pak, “will continue to make every sincere effort towards the denuclearization of the whole Korean peninsula, but will not be indifferent to an attempt to offend our dignity and self-respect, and violate our sovereignty.”

dmargolis @pww.org