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Disputed U.S. Intelligence on North Korea Uranium Exports Angers Some in South Korea
Evidence that the United States may have misled Asian nations about intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear exports has sparked anger in South Korea, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, March 21). The Korea Times newspaper yesterday referred to the situation as “Another Intelligence Fiasco.” “If the U.S. administration really offered false information … Washington’s credibility and morality would be in tatters,” the conservative Chosun Ilbo editorialized under the headline, “Did Washington Lie to Seoul?” The ruling Uri Party on Tuesday accused Washington of destabilizing the Korean Peninsula with “distorted” intelligence and “oppressive” policies on Pyongyang, the Times reported. South Korean experts familiar with the intelligence said it is an ambiguous case. “It looks like these were separate deals. North Korea supplied Pakistan [with uranium hexafluoride]. Pakistan supplied Libya. There is no evidence that North Korea knew anything about Libya,” said a South Korean official. The official called Sunday’s Washington Post story disputing the U.S. intelligence “70 percent correct,” saying that the U.S. official who briefed South Korea last month did disclose the Pakistani role but “aggrandized” North Korea’s part in the deal. Testing by the International Atomic Energy Agency has yet to determine the origin of the Libyan uranium, according to the Times. “Tests have not shown anything indicating that the uranium hexafluoride was from North Korea,” a Western diplomat said (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, March 24). The U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Tuesday denied that Washington misled allies about North Korea’s role in the uranium transfer, the Yonhap news agency reported yesterday. “The Washington Post story about nuclear material exported to Libya is inaccurate,” the embassy said in a press statement. “The United States has not misled allies or anyone else about the matter.” The United States informed its allies of the “intelligence community’s assessment of the most likely source” of the material, the statement says. “Whether the intended recipient was the A.Q. Khan network or Libya is irrelevant to our proliferation concerns regarding North Korea,” the statement says. “That nuclear material was transferred is a source of significant concern for the United States and other participants in the six-party talks” (Yonhap/BBC Monitoring, March 23). Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush urged North Korea yesterday to return to six-party talks but disavowed press reports of Washington having set a June deadline for a new round of discussions, Agence France-Presse reported. “For the sake of peace and tranquility and stability in the Far East, Kim Jong Il must listen,” Bush said. “I’m a patient person. And so are a lot of people that are involved in this issue. But the leader of North Korea must understand that when we five nations speak, we mean what we say,” he added. “And fortunately, it’s not just the United States of America saying that,” he said, referring to the other participants in the talks — China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. “When the president said ‘patient,’ he was referring to any sort of June deadline. He was saying we have not set any deadline,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told AFP (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 23). There was no breakthrough on the impasse over negotiations this week during discussions in Beijing between North Korean Premier Pak Pong Ju and Chinese officials, AFP reported. “Regarding this visit, on the question of when the six-party talks can resume, there has been no breakthrough on the progress,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. Liu added that Chinese President Hu Jintao was considering a rare visit to Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim, possibly indicating Beijing’s frustration with the stalled negotiations, according to AFP. “North Korean Premier Pak Pong Ju, on behalf of Kim Jong Il, has invited President Hu Jintao to visit North Korea at a convenient time,” Liu said. “The two sides are negotiating the arrangements regarding the visits,” he added (Agence France-Presse, March 24).
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