Mishandling North Korea
1/21/2004
IN LIGHT OF the success he has had in negotiating Libya's nuclear disarmament and fostering a similar process with Iran, President Bush's hesitation to remove the threat of nuclear weapons in North Korea by entering into give-and-take negotiations with Pyongyang is looking more and more indefensible. Administration hardliners -- hewing to the belief that, to be effective, diplomacy must be backed up by a credible threat of force -- have not been shy about claiming that Libyan ruler Moammar Khadafy suddenly saw the advantage of surrendering his nuclear weapons program on the eve of the war that removed Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
When it comes to North Korea's much more advanced nuclear program, however, some in the administration have been acting as if they have a military option or a realistic hope of regime change that would make it unnecessary to strike a deal with Pyongyang.
The reality is that they have no such options. And while they dither, they are allowing the danger to increase that North Korea will reprocess enough plutonium to make several weapons, some of which may then be peddled to any party willing to pay the asking price.
They are also alienating Asian allies. The forced resignation last week of South Korea's pro-American foreign minister, Yoon Young-kwan, came about because he favored sending South Korean troops to Iraq. He recommended this even though Secretary of State Colin Powell had rebuffed his request that the Bush administration come up with its own proposal in response to North Korea's offer to freeze its nuclear activities in the first stage of a negotiated deal.
Yoon had argued that Seoul should nevertheless send soldiers to Iraq because that is what a good ally does. Others around South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun wanted South Korea's foreign minister to be able to persuade the Americans to act like a good ally. Another ally, Japan, has been engaging in its own diplomatic dialogue with North Korea, seeking to negotiate release of Japanese citizens who had been kidnapped by North Korea in the past.
Earlier this month, an unofficial US delegation visiting North Korea was shown an empty cooling pond from which spent fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor site had been removed. North Korean officials there reiterated their offer of a phased deal in which Pyongyang would begin freezing its nuclear activities in exchange for electricity supplies paid for by Japan and South Korea. In a later stage, the North would receive security assurances from Washington and dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
Bush's failure to respond with his own negotiating proposal leaves America in the position of being incapable of backing up a dubious threat of force with a credible effort at diplomacy.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
