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United States Seeking to Use Back Channels to Resolve North Korean Nuclear Issues, U.S. Lawmaker Says By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The United States is working to use third-party channels to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) told Global Security Newswire yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 7). Weldon declined to provide further details on such efforts or whether the channels have aided in resolving the dispute surrounding North Korea’s nuclear work. He did say, though, that during a one-on-one meeting with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi earlier this year, he called on Qadhafi to aid U.S. efforts in ending North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons program. Libya, which has worked this year to dismantle its own WMD and ballistic missile programs, could serve as a model for North Korea by illustrating that disarmament can occur without regime change, Weldon said. The United States is addressing the North Korean nuclear issue through multilateral talks involving China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. After three rounds of six-party talks, the effort stalled when North Korea refused to attend a fourth round originally set to be held last month. Pyongyang has blamed the breakdown in talks on a “hostile policy” by the United States and has called for bilateral negotiations with Washington — a position rejected by the Bush administration. In a statement carried today by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, a North Korea Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the Bush administration of using the six-party talks to “bring collective pressure upon it [North Korea] and secure a pretext to attack it by force just as it invaded Iraq.” “The six-party talks can be resumed right now if the U.S. rebuilds the groundwork of the talks with a willingness to make a switchover in its hostile policy toward the D.P.R.K.,” the statement says. The question of whether multilateral talks or bilateral negotiations would be more effective in resolving the North Korean issue was contested during the first U.S. presidential debate last week between President George W. Bush and his Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry (Mass.). Bush defended his administration’s handling of the issue, saying that multilateral talks were needed because some of the other countries involved, such as China, may have more leverage over Pyongyang. Kerry, however, said that the United States should engage North Korea directly in tandem with multilateral efforts. Weldon said yesterday that while it would take “tough negotiation,” he believes a diplomatic solution will be reached to the North Korea nuclear crisis. He said, though, that it would be a “mistake” to engage in bilateral talks with Pyongyang, noting that the other countries involved in the six-party talks have a stake in their outcome due both to being key trading partners with North Korea and to being in range of North Korean ballistic missiles. Weldon heavily criticized Kerry’s positions on nonproliferation, saying the senator was not “credible” due to lack of a record on such issues. “He was AWOL,” Weldon said. He also said that Kerry’s proposals on issues such as the North Korea nuclear crisis were “just campaign rhetoric.” For his part, Weldon has proposed a two-stage initiative to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, which he presented to Pyongyang during a congressional delegation visit in late May. The first stage calls for the United States to sign a one-year nonaggression treaty with North Korea and to officially recognize the North Korean government; for Pyongyang to renounce its suspected nuclear weapons program, allow full inspections of its nuclear sites and rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; and the ratification of an economic development program between North Korea and the other members of the six-party talks involving funding of up to $5 billion annually for 10 years The second stage of the initiative, to be completed after inspections of North Korean nuclear sites are finished, calls for a permanent U.S.-North Korean nonaggression pact; North Korea to improve human rights record and to join the Missile Technology Control Regime, a multilateral export control system that seeks to establish common rules for exporting ballistic missiles and related technologies; the implementation of a cooperative threat-reduction program involving the members of the six-party talks; and the creation of an relationship between the U.S. Congress and the North Korean People’s Assembly to carry out a wide range of development recommendations.
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