By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If North Korea scuttles negotiations that are intended to defuse the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the U.N. Security Council will need to take action and Chinese opposition could be minimal, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker said yesterday (see GSN, April 23).

The United States took part in talks this week with China and North Korea, but the talks ended abruptly today reportedly after North Korea declared that it possesses nuclear weapons and threatened to test them (see related GSN story, today).  Rademaker’s remarks preceded those developments.

U.S. officials have been sharply critical of the United Nations and the Security Council for failing to enforce U.N. resolutions on Iraq, but they have maintained their desire for U.N. involvement in the North Korean crisis.

If the current talks fail, particularly if they fail because of North Korean “intransigence,” then the issue should be brought before the Security Council, Rademaker told Global Security Newswire.

China has opposed earlier Security Council attempts to reprimand North Korea for withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (see GSN, April 8).

Asked why the Security Council would be more effective in dealing with North Korea than it was in dealing with Iraq, Rademaker said that current negotiations are giving North Korea a way out.  If Pyongyang foils the talks, however, Rademaker expects China will be less supportive of its communist neighbor when the issue reaches the United Nations.

Rademaker made his comments after a panel discussion at a conference here hosted by the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories.

The United States suspects North Korea is developing nuclear weapons and Washington has so far insisted it will not offer economic or energy aid until Pyongyang dismantles its nuclear facilities.

Pyongyang announced earlier this year that it is withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  North Korean officials have said they are prepared to begin reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, a key first step to building nuclear weapons.  North Korea’s state-run media outlets have said the country needs a powerful military capability to deter a U.S. invasion.

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