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U.S. Developing Plans to Pressure Pyongyang; Seoul Says North Korea Not Necessarily a Weapons State
The Bush administration has over the past few months been developing strategies to block North Korean sources of income, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 11). The tactics, based on those already being used against al-Qaeda, would intensify efforts to freeze financial transactions that enable Pyongyang to profit from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and weapons sales, officials have said. “We think they are desperate to put more money into the nuclear program and we’re trying to cut that off,” said one U.S. senior official. Some officials said the program could also serve to undermine the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. “That wasn’t the intent in drafting it,” said one senior official. “Whether it could be one of the results is anyone’s guess.” One example of a new pressure tactic cited by U.S. officials is a Japanese law, set to take effect March 1, requiring all vessels entering the country’s ports to carry liability insurance. Almost no North Korean ships now carry the insurance, according to the Times (David Sanger, New York Times, Feb. 13). U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday told visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon that Washington remained committed to the six-party negotiating framework and gave no indication that the United States was considering military action or an economic quarantine of the North, the New York Times reported. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi maintained that his nation’s tighter shipping rules were not sanctions against North Korea. The rules, prompted by a North Korean shipwreck and oil spill that cost one Japanese city $6.4 in cleanup costs last year, require all ships over 100 tons calling at Japanese ports to carry property and indemnity insurance. Of the five members of stalled international talks with North Korea — Japan, Russia, South Korea, China and the United States — only Japan is presently taking action to punish North Korea economically, according to the Times (Brooke/Sanger, New York Times, Feb. 12). North Korea has not been confirmed to be a nuclear weapons state, despite its declaration last week that it has such armaments, a South Korean official said today. “We see it as a claim to own nuclear weapons, not an official statement of being a nuclear weapons state,” said Unification Minister Chung Dong-young. “There is no doubt that North Korea has 10 to 14 kg of plutonium, but there is no evidence that the North has turned it into plutonium bombs” (Jack Kim, Reuters, Feb. 13). China pledged to press for the revival of the six-nation talks following the North Korean statement that it would not return to the negotiations, the Associated Press reported. “China will stay in touch with all relevant parties ... so that the six-party talks could be resumed as soon as possible,” Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. Beijing continues to support a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, statement adds (Stephanie Hoo, Associated Press/Alabama Times Daily, Feb. 12). Pulling out of the negotiations would be “the wrong choice” for North Korea, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Saturday. “If the information in question proves accurate, I would say that North Korea has made the wrong choice,” Ivanov said, according to Agence France-Presse. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that informal negotiations were continuing. “The consultations over North Korea never stopped, and are continuing on a normal basis,” Lavrov said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 12). Elsewhere, North Korean U.N. Ambassador Han Song Ryol on Friday appeared to deny that Pyongyang had demanded bilateral talks with the United States. “No, we do not ask for bilateral talks,” Han said. “The formality of the dialogue is not essential one. The essential one is the U.S. policy — whether it try to attack us or not. That is the problem, but not the bilateral or multilateral one. We do not care about the formality.” He noted that the six-party talks were “no more.” Maurice Strong, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special adviser on North Korea, called for “engagement” with Pyongyang and ruled out immediate referral of the communist nation to the U.N. Security Council. Such a move would be interpreted as a “hostile act” by North Korea, he said (Nick Moore, Associated Press/Picayune Item, Feb. 12).
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