The Hindu : U.S. may scrap accord with N. Korea

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 21, 2002

International

International

U.S. may scrap accord with N. Korea

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

New York OCT. 20. Even as the Bush administration goes about giving the impression that it is not in a crisis mode over the revelations of the North Korean nuclear programme, the United States has decided to pull out of the 1994 anti-nuclear accord with that East Asian country, The New York Times has reported.

The paper, quoting unnamed senior administration officials, is saying that the President, George W. Bush, has decided to scrap the pact that required North Korea to freeze its nuclear weapons programme in return for two light water reactors and provision for fuel oil and electricity production. But daily says that the administration has no plans to publicly announce its decision to get out of the 1994 accord.

The U.S. led an international consortium — the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation — and is expected to pressure South Korea and Japan to suspend construction of the nuclear reactors. Washington is quite aware of the implications of a tough North Korea policy on Seoul and Tokyo, as both those Governments are in the process of opening up to Pyongyang.

The developments in North Korea have indeed brought about urgency to the Bush administration's East Asian policy; and the President will have an additional issue to talk about with leaders of Japan and South Korea when he meets them at a conference of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Mexico next week.

Prior to travelling to Mexico, Mr. Bush will be hosting the President of China, Jiang Zemin, next Friday at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. It is expected that North Korea will be a major topic of discussion. Any concerted economic pressure on Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme will require the full support and cooperation of countries such as Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. The White House is also said to be discussing the various implications of dealing with Pyongyang with some officials reportedly of the view that pressing North Korea hard might force it on an accelerated approach to producing nuclear weapons. The administration is in a spot over the recent revelations of North Korea, especially as the President had placed that country along with Iraq and Iran in the so-called an "axis of evil". But unlike the hardline and tight-fisted approach towards Iraq, the White House is confident that the issue with North Korea could be settled "peacefully" and diplomatically. Meanwhile, security analysts are cautioning the Republican administration that a war with North Korea will be far more dangerous than with Iraq, involving not only the loss of thousands of American lives but also risking relations with Russia and China and crucial allies in East Asia such as Japan and South Korea.

But the White House is feeling the pressure from Capitol Hill. "I think it's critical that, over the next several days, the administration comes down very hard on North Korea and not draw distinctions between this regime and regimes like that of Saddam Hussein and others with which we have equal concerns'', the influential Republican Senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona remarked.

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