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North Korea I: Weldon Details Plan to Resolve North Korean Crisis By David McGlinchey During a speech last week and in a Philadelphia Inquirer commentary today, Weldon detailed his 10-point plan to resolve the nuclear standoff. Weldon, a senior House of Representatives Armed Services Committee member, initially broached the plan with North Korean officials during a visit to Pyongyang last month. Weldon said the United States should offer a one-year nonaggression pact if North Korea is willing to renounce its nuclear weapons program and allow unfettered inspections. “We have two choices,” Weldon wrote, “isolate North Korea and foolishly hope for its eventual economic collapse, or take advantage of the window before us and engage North Korea in meaningful dialogue.” The plan calls for five initial conciliatory steps from Pyongyang and Washington, including the nonaggression pact and North Korean nuclear renunciation. U.S. officials have repeatedly balked at the prospect of a nonaggression treaty, and President George W. Bush has refused to rule out a military strike against North Korean nuclear facilities. Under Weldon’s plan, North Korea would rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the United States would establish a diplomatic presence in Pyongyang and a coalition of regional powers would commit up to $50 billion over the next decade to promote economic growth and humanitarian aid in the North. The plan has received bipartisan support from U.S. lawmakers and the U.N. envoy to North Korea, Maurice Strong. Strong previously told Global Security Newswire that the plan is “very promising” and “ambitious but achievable.” After the initial five steps are met, both sides would engage in another round of more permanent rapprochement. North Korea would be expected to dismantle its nuclear facilities within two years, ratify the international missile control treaty and join the Helsinki Commission on human rights as an observer. In return, the United States would make the nonaggression treaty permanent and Congress would establish direct ties to the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly. “Clearly, the cornerstone of this plan is the nonaggression pact by the U.S.,” according to Weldon’s commentary. He said previously that his plan might not survive negotiations intact, but that it is an important starting point. “Peace is within our grasp; now we must have the courage to reach it,” Weldon wrote today.
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