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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (61320)	12/12/2002 1:26:56 PM
From: Rascal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Oil/North Korea background. abc.net.au U.S. permits an oil shipment of North Korea Mike Allen and Glenn Kessler The Washington Post Thursday, October 24, 2002 WASHINGTON The Bush administration allowed a previously scheduled delivery of heavy fuel oil to North Korea last week after the Pyongyang government admitted it was violating an arms control agreement by trying to build a nuclear bomb, administration officials said. The decision not to abort the delivery reflected Washington's restrained reaction to the North Korean confession, a stance that will continue over the next week as President George W. Bush meets with leaders of China, Japan, Russia and South Korea to work out an acceptable way to increase pressure on the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. The White House had vowed to go after Iraq alone if necessary. But a senior administration official said that the United States would enlist the cooperation of other powers in the region to try to force North Korea to destroy its nuclear weapons program. The official said Washington would not formally renounce its 1994 arms agreement with North Korea, nor cut off oil shipments, without making an effort to "ensure that we are in lockstep with our northeast Asian allies." "People will be wondering, 'Well, why aren't we moving more quickly to take such-and-such a step?'" the official said. "We have to make sure that we work with our allies and make sure that they're comfortable with it and move at the same speed we do." Although the North Koreans told U.S. officials on Oct. 4 that the 1994 agreement was "nullified," the administration allowed 43,500 tons of heavy fuel oil required under the agreement to be delivered to North Korean ports Friday. "It was previously scheduled," the official said. "The next one is scheduled in about a month." He said no decision had been made about how to handle the next shipment, but others in the administration said it would not occur. Another senior administration official said the administration decided not to block the shipment because officials "are looking at everything very carefully right now." He said that rather than halting various parts of the aid at different points, "we‚ want to do it as one package" after consulting with allies. Offloading of the shipment began the day after the administration disclosed North Korea's admission that it had started a secret nuclear weapons program, officials said. Brian Kremer, a spokesman for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which manages the agreement, said the delivery was still being processed and would be completed this week. Three months ago, the administration concluded that North Korea had a secret nuclear program in violation of the 1994 agreement to shutter a plutonium nuclear reactor in exchange for 3.3 million barrels (500,000 tons) of annual oil deliveries and the construction of two light-water reactors. The oil shipments are made on a monthly basis, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of about $100 million a year. A Democratic congressional aide said: "Democrats aren't screaming about it because we think the administration probably made the right decision." But he suggested that Republican critics of the 1994 agreement were letting the Bush administration off easy. "Can you imagine the uproar if Bill Clinton had let the deliveries to go forward if he had been told the agreement was nullified?" he asked. Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune \| www.iht.com