Friday, Oct 18, 2002
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
Senior officials made the announcement on North Korea at the White House on Wednesday night; and the first impression is that this is not going to sit well with a Republican administration where the President, George Bush, has already identified that reclusive East Asian country among his list of the "axis of evil''. A White House Spokesman has said that Pyongyang is in violation of a 1994 accord with the then Clinton administration which had called for a nuclear free North Korea in return for economic assistance. For instance, in return to renouncing nuclear weapons North Korea was to receive two light water nuclear reactors to replace the plutonium producing reactors. Completion of the light water reactors is due by 2003. "The United States and our allies call on North Korea to comply with its commitments under the non-proliferation treaty and to eliminate its nuclear weapons programme in a verifiable manner,'' a spokesman for the National Security Council, Sean McCormack, said. In the context of the U.S. and East Asia, the Bush administration has a new headache — a severe one at that — because allies in that part of the world such as Japan have long been wary of North Korea. Back home, Mr. Bush is trying to keep his focus on the war on terrorism and at the same time open another front in Iraq over the issue of weapons of mass destruction. The North Korean disclosure will add to the woes of the South Korean President, Kim Dae-jung, who has been one of the very few leaders in the country and the region openly pushing for a more open dialogue with Pyongyang. In spite of all that had been dished out by official North Korea about its programmes and even in the aftermath of the 1994 accord, the U.S. continued to be highly sceptical of Pyongyang's programme. The CIA, earlier this year, had made the assessment that North Korea had enough plutonium to make at least one, if not two, nuclear weapons. The sudden revelation on the part of North Korea and the quick souring of relations between Pyongyang and Washington is something that will be paid serious attention to in the next few days. At one time after the visit of the former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, to Pyongyang in October 2000, the then President, Bill Clinton, gave serious consideration to visiting it prior to stepping down from office in January of 2001. Ten days ago, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific was in North Korea, James Kelley, where he bluntly said that it had to address concerns about its nuclear and other weapons programmes. After his departure, Pyongyang called Mr. Kelley "high handed and arrogant'' and accused him of making "threatening remarks''. The Bush administration has not made public any of the discussions that took place in North Korea.
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