Friday, Oct 18, 2002
Friday, Oct 18, 2002 |
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By P. S. Suryanarayana
In prime focus were the reports from Washington about an official briefing on how Pyongyang had recently confirmed to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, James Kelly, that North Korea was indeed engaged in a nuclear weapons programme. Mr. Kelly was informed of this when he confronted the North Korean officials, during his recent visit to Pyongyang, with American evidence about the Kim Jong-il regime's efforts to enrich uranium for the purpose of making nuclear weapons. Japan, which takes North Korea's strategic moves very seriously, indicated that the nuclear issue could well figure prominently in the prospective normalisation talks between the two sides later this month. Tokyo chose to avoid a knee-jerk reaction by staying on course for the proposed reconciliation talks with North Korea. The rationale behind Japan's circumspection was linked to the possibility that such parleys would indeed offer Tokyo an opportunity to raise concerns about Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weaponisation drive. This explains the decision by the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, against calling off the proposed normalisation talks with North Korea in the new context. Mr. Koizumi and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, had agreed, during their recent summit, that their countries would abide by all relevant international agreements concerning nuclear non-proliferation. It is against this background that Japan could now engage North Korea over this sensitive issue. North Korea's present tactics seem designed to provoke such a diplomatic dialogue, which might give Pyongyang a chance to address the nuclear issue from its standpoint as well. With the U.S. too appearing to rule out at this juncture any military action to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weaponisation capabilities, in spite of a different American approach as regards Iraq, the choices became simpler for both Japan and South Korea. In Seoul, the Government today reaffirmed its policy of opposing the moves by North Korea to make nuclear weapons. The issue was discussed by South Korea's National Security Council at a meeting chaired by the Unification Minister, Jeong Se-hyun. According to an authentic version of the meeting, Pyongyang was asked to comply fully with all the commitments it had made about nuclear pacifism under the Agreed Framework with the U.S. also under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty besides the North-South Joint Declaration on the De-nuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. It was also indicated that the South Korean President, Kim Dae-jung, would discuss the issue during a summit that he would hold with the leaders of the U.S. and Japan on the sidelines of the conference of the Asia-Pacific economic leaders in Mexico later this month. In Beijing, a Chinese spokesperson said the Government was in favour of de-nuclearisation in the Korean peninsula. A peaceful resolution of the issue was also emphasised by China.
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