The International Atomic Energy Agency today formally sent the North Korean nuclear crisis to the U.N. Security Council after determining that North Korea has violated its nuclear nonproliferation commitments (see GSN, Feb. 11).

None of the agency’s 35-member Board of Governors voted against the resolution, but Russia and Cuba abstained.  Russia has opposed escalating the crisis, according to Reuters (Rake/Charbonneau, Reuters, Feb. 12).

“The D.P.R.K. is in further noncompliance with its obligations under its safeguards agreement with the agency,” the IAEA’s resolution says (IAEA release I, Feb. 12).

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said North Korea has been in “chronic noncompliance” since 1993, and the agency was not able to fulfill its duties to ensure that Pyongyang was abiding by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

“Since 1994 the D.P.R.K. has sought shelter behind the U.S.-D.P.R.K. Agreed Framework, claiming a legally untenable ‘unique status’ under the NPT to circumvent compliance with its nonproliferation obligations,” ElBaradei said.  North Korea “displayed complete disregard for its obligations under the safeguards agreement by cutting all seals and impeding the functioning of surveillance cameras that were in place in its nuclear facilities,” ElBaradei added (IAEA release II, Feb. 12).

Anticipating the IAEA move, European foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday that he hoped the Security Council would not act too aggressively toward North Korea.

“I don’t think it is the moment to impose sanctions.  I think sanctions will contribute to the opposite of what we want to take — which is to defuse the crisis,” Solana said during a visit to Seoul (Korea Herald, Feb. 12).

Also speaking yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declined to limit possible U.S. policies.

“We have all of our options available to us,” Powell the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.  “The option we’re pushing is a diplomatic one, and we want to do it within a multilateral framework,” he added (James Dao, New York Times, Feb. 12).

Moscow is still trying to find an alternate solution to the nuclear crisis.

Russia is planning “numerous steps” to push Washington and Pyongyang to talks,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said in statement to the Interfax news agency.

“We feel there is potential for dialogue between the United States and North Korea and believe that this chance should be used before making any important decisions,” his statement said (Dao, New York Times).

“The North Koreans have told us about their desire to hold a dialogue with the United States,” Losyukov said.  “The Americans have told the same thing.  We need to figure out why, unfortunately, this is not happening while the crisis continues and — if not getting even worse — then at least staying at the same level,” he added (Dawn, Feb. 12).

U.S. lawmakers from both parties have criticized the White House for its approach to North Korea.

“There needs to be informal dialogue,” said Representative Kurt Weldon (R-Pa.).  “That’s the biggest problem now.  No one is having discussions,” he added (Dao, New York Times).

Moscow is afraid that taking the issue to the Security Council could be “one more step that might trigger retaliation by Pyongyang,” according to a Western diplomat.

Many IAEA board members, however, fear that the future of the organization hangs in the balance.

“We never had a state walk out of the NPT before.  We never had a state tearing up the safeguard agreements (which provide for IAEA inspections of nuclear sites) before,” said a senior diplomat.

CIA Director George Tenet said yesterday that Pyongyang is attempting to make Washington accept a nuclear North Korea.

North Korean leader “Kim Jong Il’s attempts this past year to parlay the North’s nuclear weapons program into political leverage suggest he is trying to negotiate a fundamentally different relationship with Washington — one that implicitly tolerates the North’s nuclear weapons program,” he testified to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo.com, Feb. 12).

North Korea today asked the United Kingdom to push the United States to open dialogue with Pyongyang.

“We think because the U.K. has a special relationship with the U.S., we expect the U.K. can play a certain role in relations between our country and the U.S.,” said Ri Hui Chol, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official (Reuters/MSNBC.com, Feb. 11).

British Foreign Office minister Bill Rammel rejected the suggestion.

“This isn’t a bilateral issue between the U.S. and North Korea.  It is an issue for the entire international community,” he said (Gideon Long, Reuters, Feb. 12).

Washington Holding Back Food Aid

The United States is temporarily holding back shipments of food to North Korea because of reports that the humanitarian supplies are being redirected to the North Korean army and Pyongyang’s political elite.

“We are going to continue to be there, because we don’t use food as a weapon,” said Tony Hall, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies.  “But we are going to be darn sure that if we tell you where the food is supposed to be and you give it to someone else, then we’re going to wait, and we’re going to be darn sure that our food is getting through to the right people,” he added.

No U.S. food aid has been pledged to the program yet this year.

“We will give, we just don’t know when,” said a U.S. official.

Food program officials “try to follow the food, but what we’re hearing is they will take the food out, and they will actually see the food being given to the people.  The food program leaves, and (government officials) grab the food and take it from (the recipients),” Hall said (Nicole Winfield, Washington Times, Feb. 12).

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