US acts against N. Korea firm accused of missile parts sale
Official cites bid to send warning on such arms deals
By Peter Slevin, Washington Post, 8/23/2002
ASHINGTON - The Bush administration will announce trade sanctions today against a North Korean manufacturer accused of selling prohibited missile parts, officials said yesterday, signaling continued skepticism about the Pyongyang regime's trustworthiness on the eve of a US diplomat's visit to the region.
US sanctions against the Changgwang Sinyong Corp. will probably have no practical effect in the United States, because no American companies do such business with North Korea.
But one official said that ''we are putting on notice our friends and allies and their companies that this is a crowd they should steer away from.''
The two-year trade measures, which officials said apply both to the company and the North Korean government, are the first to be imposed on North Korea for weapons or materials sales since April 2000.
It was the seventh time since 1992 that Korean companies have been penalized for violating the Missile Technology Control Regime.
According to a report today in The New York Times, Changgwang Sinyong sent the Scud missile parts to Yemen.
The US announcement was made at a delicate time, when the administration and North Korea are trying to arrange long-delayed discussions on issues including nuclear nonproliferation and Korean peninsula military deployments.
The government of Kim Jong Il has been particularly skittish recently, inviting talks, then going silent in June, only to strengthen contacts this month.
John Bolton, the State Department's top arms control official, is due to arrive in South Korea next week, where he plans to give a speech that deals significantly with North Korea.
Officials asserted that the sanctions announcement was the product of months of work and bureaucratic delays, and they described its timing as coincidental.
Bolton has a reputation for making dramatic public comments. An early draft of his remarks contained strong criticism of the Pyongyang government.
But, after The Washington Times reported yesterday that Bolton would label North Korea a terrorist state and set terms for a US withdrawal from a 1994 nuclear freeze agreement, US officials hurried to say that the unfinished speech would be vetted within the administration.
''We're going to make sure that it's something that all sides can support or can grudgingly support,'' said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will review the speech before it is given.
Policymakers within the administration are divided about the best way to influence the behavior of Kim Jong Il and his government.
While some, including Bolton, favor a tough and vocal approach in response to repeated frustrations, others believe that Kim Jong Il would respond better to a quieter diplomacy.
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