Author: Howard W. French
Publication: The Washington Post
Date: December 24, 2002
North Korea warned today of an "uncontrollable
catastrophe" unless the United States agreed to a negotiated solution to
a standoff over its nuclear energy and weapons programs.
The statement came as a stiff pre-emptive
rebuff to a conciliation-minded, newly elected president in South Korea,
and as a warning to other countries that their efforts to mediate the crisis
would be futile.
"There is no need for any third
party to meddle in the nuclear issue on the peninsula," said North Korea's
ruling-party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun.
Using the initials for the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name, the newspaper
asserted: "The issue should be settled between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S.,
the parties responsible for it. If the U.S. persistently tries to internationalize
the pending issue between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S. in a bid to flee from
its responsibility, it will push the situation to an uncontrollable catastrophe."
Going even further, the North Korean
defense minister, Kim Il Chol, warned of "merciless punishment" to the
United States if it pursued a confrontational approach.
"The U.S. hawks are arrogant enough
to groundlessly claim that North Korea has pushed ahead with a `nuclear
program,' bringing its hostile policy toward the D.P.R.K. to an extremely
dangerous phase," the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Mr. Kim
as saying.
[In Washington, the State Department
said it was following developments closely. "Again, we urge North Korea
not to restart any of its frozen nuclear facilities," the department said
in a statement that reflected no change since it declared on Monday that
there could be no negotiations while North Korea pursued a nuclear program,
and that the United States "will not give in to blackmail."
[President Bush was said to be monitoring
developments from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., where he
will spend Christmas with his family. The Associated Press reported that
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was continuing to reach out to North
Korea's neighbors, calling Japan's foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi.
Since Saturday, Mr. Powell has also conferred with leaders in Russia, China,
South Korea, Britain and France.]
Some analysts here saw the defense
minister's statement as a defiant response to comments by his American
counterpart, Donald H. Rumsfeld, who said on Monday that the United States
had enough military power in reserve to prevail over North Korea in the
event a conflict with the country should occur in the midst of a war with
Iraq.
"We're capable of winning decisively
in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other, and let there be
no doubt about it," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
The North's comments come as Pyongyang
accelerates its takeover of nuclear fuel and reactors that were placed
under international surveillance by a 1994 agreement with the United States
following a crisis remarkably similar to the current one.
Today, South Korean officials said
that North Korea had begun taking steps to reactivate a five-megawatt nuclear
reactor that had been mothballed under the eight-year-old agreement, the
so-called Agreed Framework. North Korea has completed the removal of the
last International Atomic Energy Agency seals and the disabling of surveillance
cameras at a fuel fabrication plant in Yongbyon, South Korean officials
said Tuesday.
The facility is technically known
as a research reactor, but all along, Western arms control experts have
said that its true purpose of the plant is to produce plutonium for North
Korea's nuclear weapons program.
"There are varying estimates on
how long it would take them to reprocess the spent fuel, but they probably
have plans to do it a lot faster than outsiders imagine - and will do so
if their equipment works," said an American official who has studied North
Korea's nuclear programs for years. "Here are a few of the ugly signposts
we might whiz pass: asking the inspectors to leave, starting up the reprocessing
line, finalizing their withdrawal from the Nonproliferation Treaty, and
declaring themselves a nuclear power - with a "Korean bomb" intended to
protect the whole of the Korean people by keeping the Americans from starting
a war."
Reflecting the sharp increase in
distrust between the United States and South Korea amid a series of major
demonstrations against the presence of 37,000 American troops in the country,
the official added, "This will cause some secret shivers of pride amongst
some in the South."
Both South Korea's outgoing president,
Kim Dae Jung, and the man who will succeed him in February, Roh Moo Hyun,
spent most of the day struggling to contain the crisis with North Korea,
which threatens to nullify the engagement policies embraced by both men.
"South Korea, the United States,
Japan, China, Russia and the European Union are all strongly calling on
North Korea to abandon the nuclear program, but the North is not listening
now," Mr. Kim said during a cabinet meeting.
[Tara Rigler, a State Department
spokeswoman, reiterated the administration's position today that the spent
fuel rods are "of particular concern because they could be processed to
recover plutonium for nuclear weapons."
["They have no relevance for the
generation of electricity," Ms. Rigler said.]
Amid concerns over tensions between
Washington and Seoul, Mr. Kim appeared to draw closer to the American position
on the North, saying there could be no major cooperation between the two
countries unless Pyongyang agreed to international controls on its weapons
of mass destruction. "We can never join hands in the development of nuclear
weapons, missiles and other weapons," Mr. Kim said.
The incoming president, Mr. Roh,
meanwhile, spent much of the day meeting with ambassadors of countries
that have been involved in the region's crisis. "The president-elect requested
cooperation from those concerned countries to help resolve the North's
nuclear issue peacefully," said Mr. Roh's spokesman, Lee Nak-hyun.
Mr. Roh also spoke by telephone
to the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. The two leaders "agreed
to continue close cooperation among Japan, the United States and South
Korea to bring about a peaceful solution to nuclear and other security
issues regarding North Korea," the ministry said in a statement.
Recently, China, which has been
North Korea's closest allies since the two countries fought the United
States during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, has also expressed concern
over the country's reported pursuit of nuclear weapons, and today urged
Washington and Pyongyang to negotiate a solution of the crisis that would
leave the Korean peninsula free from nuclear weapons.
"We hope relevant sides can proceed
in the overall interest of safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula
and reach a resolution to the issue through dialogue," the Chinese Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.
