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South Korea Increases Nuclear Monitoring
South Korea last week increased efforts to detect and monitor a potential nuclear test explosion by North Korea, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 18). The South Korean military on Aug. 14 placed six staffers at a state-operated seismology facility to search for any signs of a nuclear test, according to a defense official. “It is not linked to the U.S. media reports but we have been on an around-the-clock vigilance on North Korea’s nuclear activities since July,” the official said. ABC News reported Thursday that U.S. officials believe Pyongyang might be preparing for a nuclear test (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Aug. 20). U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday refused to respond directly to the news report, but said a North Korean nuclear test would be a strong sign of its questionable intentions, The Press Trust of India reported. “It’s a hypothetical question,” Bush said. “You’re asking me to divulge any intelligence information I have, and I’m not going to do that, as you know.” “If North Korea were to conduct a test, it’s just a constant reminder for people in the neighborhood that North Korea poses a threat, and we expect our friends and those sitting around the table with us to act in such a manner as to help rid the world of that threat” (The Press Trust of India, Aug. 19). A Russian military expert said he believes North Korea is capable of conducting a nuclear test, Interfax reported. “The KGB reported back in the 1980s that North Korea had several nuclear charges but did not test them for political reasons and the fear of sanctions. That is why we should have no doubts that North Korea can carry out an underground nuclear explosion,” said Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin. “Most likely, this is a kind of a nuclear charge but not a missile warhead or an air bomb. It would take Pyongyang a rather long time to develop them,” he said. A nuclear test would bring an even stronger reaction from the world community than did Pyongyang’s missile tests last month, Dvorkin said. “After the world reacted negatively to the North Korean missile tests, one can predict with confidence that very tough sanctions would be imposed on that country by the U.N. Security Council. It would be difficult for Russia and China to object to this decision,” he added. Also, “the possibility of U.S. unilateral precise strikes on North Korean nuclear and missile facilities using conventional weapons would grow,” Dvorkin said (Interfax, Aug. 20). Meanwhile, Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi has been pressing North Korea to relinquish its WMD programs, AFP reported Friday. Qadhafi met last week with Japanese Science and Technology Policy Minister Iwao Matsuda, who lauded Tripoli’s 2003 renunciation of weapons of mass destruction. “In response, leader Qadhafi said … he has been calling on North Korea and other nations of concern to follow Libya’s example,” according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement. “He said further cooperation from industrialized nations is necessary for such efforts to be effective” (Agence France-Presse, Aug. 18).
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