>>Bush scraps N. Korea arms treaty
Fuel aid cut off in payback for nuclear project
By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 10/20/2002
WASHINGTON - Raising the stakes in a standoff with North Korea, the Bush administration has decided to scrap a 1994 arms control accord that has provided fuel oil in exchange for Pyongyang's promise that it would stop building nuclear weapons.
The decision was made two weeks after the North Koreans acknowledged that they were in violation of the pact, and it followed deliberations within the administration about the ramifications of deciding to declare the agreement null and void, the New York Times reported in today's editions.
While the immediate effect of the decision would be to halt the annual shipment of 500,000 tons of fuel oil from the United States to North Korea, administration officials indicated that internal debate centered on whether canceling the accord could lead North Korea to increase its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
A US withdrawal from the treaty is intended to send a symbolic message - namely, that the White House plans to force compliance by isolating the already economically ravaged nation from the rest of the region and the world.
But administration officials believe that North Korea, in pursuing a nuclear program it had promised not to seek, effectively abandoned the treaty first.
''North Korea, by its own declaration, has said the agreed framework is nullified and their actions have made them noncompliant with the agreement,'' National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said last night. ''We are consulting closely with our friends and allies and with Congress on next steps.''
Administration officials do not plan to announce the decision soon and hope to continue diplomatic dialogue, an administration official said.
The approach toward North Korea contrasts sharply with the Bush administration's line on Iraq, which faces military action if it fails to prove it is not pursuing weapons of mass destruction. North Korea and Iraq were identified as members of an ''axis of evil'' in President Bush's State of the Union address in January.
Speaking to reporters in Seoul yesterday, Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly indicated the United States will not confront Pyongyang as directly as it has Baghdad, but will place ''maximum international pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambition.''
US officials will demand that Pyongyang ''immediately and visibly end'' its covert program, Kelly said. Kelly, who confronted North Korean officials two weeks ago about the program and reported back to Washington that officials had admitted to a covert uranium enrichment program, rejected an offer to begin negotiations over the matter, saying that it is incumbent upon North Korea to comply with the accord.
''This is not a replay of 1993 and 1994,'' he said, referring to the earlier agreement to help build a modern energy infrastructure in North Korea in exchange for its promise not to develop nuclear weapons.
Under the 1994 agreement negotiated by the Clinton administration, a US-led team has been helping build two light-water reactors to provide nuclear power to a country that still falls into near- total darkness each night.
''When I went to North Korea I wanted them to understand just how important we believe this violation of the past agreements is,'' Kelly said following talks with Chinese officials about the developments in North Korea.
Kelly also indicated that North Korean officials treated their admission as a negotiating tool - and would be willing to drop the nuclear program in exchange for a treaty with the United States, as well as a guarantee that US officials are not planning a military attack.
''They did suggest, after this harsh and - personally, to me - surprising admission, that there were measures that might be taken that were generally along those lines,'' Kelly said, responding to a question.
Kelly said he rejected the offer. He and Undersecretary of State John Bolton are traveling through the region, and are expected to visit with officials in Japan today.
Chinese leaders, in meetings there on yesterday, ''made it very clear that they strongly oppose any nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula,'' Kelly said.
But he refused to confirm the administration's decision to abandon the 1994 treaty. ''No decisions have been made on any next steps,'' he said.
Kelly confirmed, however, that North Korean officials told him they consider the 1994 agreement nullified - a development they attempted to blame on the United States. Japan and South Korea have urged the United States not to reach the same conclusion, in the hope that new negotiations can emerge from the disclosure.
North Korea has not commented publicly on its admission, during talks Oct. 3-5, that it is working on a uranium enrichment program to develop a nuclear bomb. The news prompted global concern when it was disclosed by US officials last week.
The United States has long insisted that its humanitarian aid efforts, which helped end widespread starvation in the 1990s, are not contingent upon negotiations over nuclear weapons. But stopping the fuel oil deliveries could have a significant impact on the severely impoverished country, where factories are struggling to function and many hospitals go unheated.<<
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