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U.S. Seeks “Transformation” of North Korea By Marina Malenic WASHINGTON — The United States is seeking broader reforms in North Korea beyond Washington’s immediate goal of dismantling all North Korean nuclear activities, a senior U.S. official said Friday (see GSN, March 11). “Our objectives extend further than just a North Korea without nuclear weapons,” said Mitchell Reiss, the U.S. State Department’s policy planning director. “We do not simply seek a D.P.R.K. without WMD, but the transformation of the D.P.R.K. into a normal state,” he added. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation here just two weeks after multilateral talks in Beijing over North Korea’s nuclear program, Reiss reiterated the Bush administration’s position that North Korea must agree to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement” of all its nuclear programs before the United States provides any reciprocal benefits. With that demand described, Reiss went on to urge North Korea to adopt additional reforms to its financial management methods, food-aid distribution programs and energy plans. In unusually explicit terms, Reiss also described the measures the United States is willing to offer in return for conciliatory North Korea moves, although he reaffirmed earlier Bush administration cautions. “We cannot reward North Korea, but we can and will help it, if it is prepared to make this transformation,” he said. More specifically, Reiss said the United States would provide several inducements, including: * the “progressive removal of economic sanctions;” * North Korea’s removal from the U.S. list of nations that sponsor terrorism; * “opportunities for economic and technical assistance with agriculture, industrial retraining, education, financial expertise, economic management and defense conversion; and * “ultimately, the normalization of relations.” Reiss said Washington is committed to seeking a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the situation. “It may take time, but President [George W.] Bush is patient,” Reiss said. Nonproliferation analysts said the Reiss remarks could be interpreted in different ways by North Korea. Pyongyang could, for example, resent the U.S. intrusion into a broader set of North Korean affairs. “A North Korean official could say, ‘Unfortunately the Americans are trying to do much more here than trying to end my nuclear program,’” said Center for Strategic and International Studies Senior Fellow Joel Wit, a former State Department official who worked closely with North Korea during the 1990s. However, the speech offered good news to North Korea as well, said Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Reiss said North Korea must choose between pursuing illegal nuclear activities or economic development and better relations with the world community. “It cannot have both,” he said. Reiss, though, expressed skepticism that Pyongyang would choose well, due to its “unfortunate legacy of missed opportunities,” including a post-Cold War failure to “learn the economic lessons that China and Vietnam did.” “What is [North Korean President] Kim Jong Il’s vision for the future?” Reiss asked rhetorically. “Just muddling by on foreign aid, continuing with an economic policy based on an extremely inappropriate imbalance between guns and butter?” he asked. If North Korea does not choose wisely, Reiss said there would be repercussions. “If North Korea will not act, it will find the United States, its allies and other partners equally prepared to respond with measures that ensure North Korea cannot threaten our countries or international stability,” he said. Six-party talks are due to resume in Beijing by June after the second round in February concluded with only an agreement to establish working groups. Reiss commended China for its cooperation thus far, stating that its involvement in the process “succeeded in defining North Korea as primarily a regional problem, not just an American problem as North Korea wants to paint it.” GSN Managing Editor Greg Webb contributed to this report.
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