US Ends North Korea Arms Control PactOctober 20, 2002
SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Now that North Korea as admitted it violated its 1994 arms control pact with the United States, continuing to develop nuclear weapons capability, the Bush administration will terminate its end of the bargain as well, including shipments of fuel oil, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The U.S. abandonment of the agreement will signal an American effort to show North Korea that nuclear weapons will mean a near-total economic isolation.
The United States has so far not been specific about what consequences North Korea could face, suggesting the weapons program does not yet pose as much of a threat as Iraq's suspected chemical and biological arms. Under the agreement North Korea gets 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually from the United States, shipments that will now stop, the Times said.
In addition, an end to the accord means the United States will urge Japan and South Korea to at least suspend the multibillion dollar project to build modern nuclear power plants in North Korea.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, in Japan Sunday to brief officials there about his talks early this month with North Korean officials, ran into significant resistance from South Korea to the concept of isolating North Korea, the Times said.
Kelly, in Seoul Saturday, told reporters that lines of communication with the North remain open but that the United States will continue to pressure that country to end its development project.
Any attempt to economically isolate North Korea would require the cooperation of China, Russia, Japan and Europe, where Kelly and other U.S. officials are visiting in the days ahead.
"We will continue to work together with South Korea as well as Japan and other concerned states to press for the prompt and visible dismantling of the North Korean nuclear weapons program," Kelly told reporters in South Korea's capital Seoul Saturday.
The U.S. envoy vowed nonetheless to mount international pressure on North Korea to "immediately and visibly end" such efforts.
Kelly's comments had come the same day as a team of senior South Korean diplomats met with North Korean officials in Pyongyang for four days of talks.
"The situation is not good. We need dialogue at such a time," said South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, head of the team.
The talks had been planned long before the news of North Korea's admission became public last week and even before the Oct. 4 date on which U.S. officials say the North Koreans conceded they had indeed been trying to enrich uranium.
"Given that (North Korea's) nuclear program is the root of our nation's worries and anxiety, we will clearly address the issue and other related issues to the northern side," said Jeong.
The U.S. envoy told reporters that "the best way to start negotiations is to end their covert nuclear weapons program from the past," Kelly said. He said there remain "channels of communication should North Korea wish to give us information."
It was to Kelly that North Korea admitted they were violating a 1994 agreement with the United States, an admission that apparently went far beyond what U.S. officials were expecting. On his Oct. 3-5 trip to Pyongyang Kelly had outlined U.S. evidence that North Korea had continued its nuclear program despite agreeing to shut it down.
At the time of the admission the North Koreans "did not make any demands as they were characterized but they did suggest after this harsh and, personally to me, surprising admission, suggest that there were measures that might be taken," said Kelly.
The demands made by North Korea in exchange for ending its weapons program, as widely reported, were that the United States must pledge not to make a first strike to destroy its nuclear program, that it must reach a peace treaty with North Korea and that the United States must formally acknowledge North Korea's government regime.
Reaching any such understandings with North Korea before the covert program is ended, Kelly said, "is really, in my view, got it upside down."
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