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North Korea I: Pakistan Probably Gave Nuclear Aid Recently, Officials Say The Bush administration has evidence that Pakistan aided North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons program as recently as three months ago, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 21). Publicly, the United States has said that while Pakistan aided North Korea’s nuclear weapons efforts in the past, it had cut off assistance after the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House believes, however, that Pakistan continued to exchange technical nuclear information, and possibly materials, in exchange for missile components until this summer, White House and congressional sources said. White House officials refused to comment on the evidence. “Let’s put it this way: There were still shenanigans going on three months ago,” a Bush administration official said. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has provided assurances that he is ending all suspicious trade with North Korea, and U.S. officials believe he wants to stop the nuclear aid, according to the Post. The U.S. officials said they question, however, how much control Musharraf has over the Pakistani entities doing business with Pyongyang. “In the end, we may find he is only partially truthful,” an official said. Pakistan’s suspected involvement in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program could put the Bush administration, which considers Islamabad an ally, in a difficult position, the Post reported. Under U.S. law, if the president determines that a country has provided nuclear enrichment equipment, materials or technologies without international safeguards, the United States must impose sanctions, accordin to the Post. The United States imposed such sanctions on Pakistan in 1979, but U.S. President George W. Bush waived them last year after Pakistan agreed to aid the war on terrorism (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2001). Instead of calling on Pakistan to provide full information on its transactions with North Korea, U.S. officials said they have noted the new evidence, according to the Post. They believe Pakistan understands that future violations will not be tolerated, the Post reported. It will be difficult for the United States to understand the scope of North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons program without knowing what kind of aid Pakistan might have provided, several experts said. “We have asked North Korea to verifiably dismantle its nuclear enrichment program,” said Robert Einhorn, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation in the Clinton and Bush administrations. “How will we know if North Korea has done that unless we know precisely what Pakistan has transferred to North Korea?” he added (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Nov. 13).
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