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North Korea Slows Fuel Removal
North Korea has slowed the removal of nuclear fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear facility to less than half the rate needed to disable the site by a deadline agreed to under a six-party denuclearization deal, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Jan. 24). South Korean efforts to resolve the disablement deadlock have so far been unsuccessful, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon was reported as saying today. “It looks difficult to get a tangible result for the time being,” Song said, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Jan. 28). Meanwhile, nuclear experts say the Bush administration is fighting to suppress internal criticism over its diplomatic strategy for engaging "The administration is getting a little nervous," said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s backlash against North Korean human rights envoy Jay Levkowitz for publicly criticizing "What I have seen so far is Bush is committed (to the diplomatic strategy) but they (in the administration) know North Korea has to make some concessions and it's not doing that," he said. “So the whole process is slowing down … and that's frustrating for the administration because they want to make more progress" as they also contend with "people coming out and trashing it from inside" and outside the administration. Levkowitz’s criticism reflected a broader frustration felt over “He said publicly what a lot of administration officials believe privately — that the North Koreans are certainly not, in the remainder of this year, going to give up their nuclear weapons," said Samore, vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "And it looks like they may not even submit a credible declaration, in which case the whole process would stop. In that case, the next administration would have to pick the whole issue up," Samore said. Jon Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the denuclearization deal still has enough support for the Bush administration to continue to pursue it. "The strength and visibility of the rebuke from Secretary Rice was a clear sign that the dominant view is still one of engagement and working the six-party process," Wolfsthal said. Vice President Dick Cheney and other hardliners on North Korea have been marginalized for the time being, Wolfsthal added, but he cautioned that “there is a big question … which is how much patience does the Bush administration, particularly President Bush, have?” “If time runs out on the Bush administration are they going to leave a process of engagement for their successor; or in the waning months of the administration will they try to salt the earth so nothing else can grow?” he said. He suggested that the White House may be attempting to keep tensions with On Saturday, North Korea proposed quickly signing a peace treaty that would formally end the Korean War in order to reduce tensions with the United States. An armistice ended fighting in the 1950-1953 Korean War but no peace treaty followed, leaving the United States and the two Koreas technically in a state of war. “It is urgent to replace the armistice agreement with a peace accord because the armistice agreement exists in name only due to the U.S.,” the communist party daily Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary. “The earlier conclusion of the peace accord would help convert the acute belligerent relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and the U.S. to those of peace and confidence and ensure lasting peace and stability on the peninsula,” the newspaper said. Under the six-party agreement, a formal peace treaty and U.S.-North Korean ties would become possible only after
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