US: No Immediate Action On N. Korea
UNITED NATIONS (Dec. 30) - The United States, shifting course, will not rush to bring North Korea's nuclear arms program to the attention of the U.N. Security Council for possible international action, U.S. officials said Monday.
Washington, its hands full with preparations for a possible war on Iraq, will instead try to leave the North Korean crisis in the hands of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, for as long as the entire month of January, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pressure had been building on Washington to bring Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship to the council's attention as early as this week, but the U.S. delegation now had no instructions to raise the matter before next week at the earliest, council diplomats said.
The agenda of the 15-nation council for the current month is topped by a report to the council, due Jan. 27, on the findings of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq.
Acting under a Nov. 8 Security Council resolution giving Baghdad one last chance to disarm itself or face ''serious consequences,'' the inspectors are to present the council with their first substantive report on what they have found since arms inspections resumed on Nov. 27.
With Iraq already on their plate, U.S. officials said they were hopeful the IAEA could maintain the lead on North Korea throughout the month of January, and make sufficient progress without the United States and the United Nations having to take a leading role.
After North Korea announced it was ejecting the last IAEA inspectors, the Security Council had been expected to take up the North Korea dossier as early as this week and more likely next week, after next Monday's meeting in Vienna of the IAEA board of governors.
IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to report to the board that his agency is no longer able to verify whether North Korean nuclear materials were being diverted to nuclear weapons, despite Pyongyang's acceptance of IAEA inspections under an earlier safeguards agreement.
POWELL DISCOURAGES TALK OF CRISIS
But Secretary of State Colin Powell sought Sunday to discourage talk of crisis and conflict with North Korea, saying it was ready to wait months to see if diplomacy could persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs.
''I don't want to create a sense of crisis or that we're on the brink of war, because I don't believe we are,'' Powell told the ABC program ''This Week.''
''We are not planning a preemptive strike. The United States has a full range of capabilities -- political, economic, diplomatic and, yes, military. But we are not trying to create a crisis atmosphere by threatening North Korea,'' he told NBC television's ''Meet the Press.''
Powell also ruled out immediate negotiations with the North Koreans, arguing that would reward Pyongyang for violating international agreements. Washington continues to have contact with North Korea through third parties, he added.
North Korea last week told the U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country as it pressed on with plans to reactivate its mothballed Yongbyon facility, 55 miles north of the capital. The plant can produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
The North Koreans say they need the plant to generate electricity, replacing fuel oil withheld by the United States, but Powell said it was too small to make a difference.
North Korea's defiance of international opinion has invited comparisons with Iraq, which President Bush has threatened to disarm by force if it does not meet U.N. disarmament requirements.
REUTERS Reut12:00 12-30-02
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