`Axis of evil' states catch U.S. off guard
Iran, North Korea push nuclear plan `Stealth' jets sent to South Korea
Mar. 12, 2003. 01:00 AM
CAROL GIACOMO
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
WASHINGTON—President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" is proving even more threatening than maybe even he expected. On the verge of a U.S.-led war against Iraq, North Korea and Iran are accelerating the quest for nuclear weapons.
These developments have dealt a body blow to international efforts to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction and forced the administration to begin thinking about new approaches if, as is increasingly likely, President Saddam Hussein is forced out of Baghdad through military action.
The U.S. military said yesterday it was sending up to six radar-avoiding F-117A "stealth" warplanes to South Korea for exercises this month with Seoul's forces on the troubled Korean peninsula.
Military officials said the first such deployment of F-117As to Kunsan Air Base in South Korea in a decade was routine and not connected with the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. But the temporary move follows recent deployment of 24 American B-1 and B-52 bombers to the island of Guam in an open warning to Pyongyang against adventurism in case of a U.S.-led war with Iraq.
U.S. officials and other experts agree that preventing Pyongyang and Tehran from full-scale nuclear production is becoming more difficult by the day and so far, no real solutions have been proposed.
"What we're seeing is a worldwide breakout on the nuclear weapons front," said Gary Milhollin of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
Tensions with North Korea have been rising since the isolated communist state disclosed in October it had launched a covert nuclear program in violation of various agreements.
Now there are heightened alarms about Iran, which the Washington Post said Monday is on track to produce enough enriched uranium by 2005 for several nuclear bombs per year.
Bush took a lot of heat for lumping Iraq, North Korea and Iran into an "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union speech to Congress. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday recent developments have proved his point.
"This is one of the reasons the president ... referred to Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the axis of evil, because of their willing desire to flaunt international accords in pursuit of nuclear weapons," he said.
"It is also why it is so important for the United Nations to be effective against Iraq. If the United Nations is not able to enforce anti-proliferation agreements around the world, proliferators will celebrate. We will continue to be faced with growing problems in Iran, North Korea and who knows where else," Fleischer added.
Washington yesterday protested to Pyongyang over a March 2 incident in which North Korean fighter jets intercepted a U.S. spy plane "on a routine mission" over the Sea of Japan.
In Seoul yesterday, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun called for a stronger alliance with Washington, but added the nation must be prepared for a possible redeployment of U.S. troops in the country.
Speaking to the graduating class of the Korea Military Academy after North Korea fired a cruise missile into the Sea of Japan Monday, Roh said the redeployment plan was not new. But he stressed the half-century alliance between Seoul and Washington was more important than ever.
Roh's comments came after U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week troops could be pulled back from near the border with North Korea or withdrawn from South Korea altogether. The United States has 37,000 troops in the South and act as a "trip wire" to deter North Korean aggression.
The Post described U.S. officials as surprised by Iran's nuclear breakthrough and Lee Feinstein, a security expert who worked in the state department under President Bill Clinton, said he also was struck by the program's advanced nature.
Nuclear expert Henry Sokolski said no one should have been caught off guard. "These countries have been acquiring these things. We've been getting intelligence about them for over a decade. People weren't paying attention," said Sokolski, who heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre.
Feinstein faulted the Bush team for putting Iranian nuclear dangers on the "back burner" as it focused on building new ties with Moscow and winning support for the anti-terror war.
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