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White House Manipulated North Korea Intelligence, Expert Alleges; Pyongyang Possibly Ready for Talks
The Bush administration exaggerated the threat of an alleged uranium-based North Korean nuclear weapons program to keep the communist nation isolated, a U.S. expert alleged in an article released today (see GSN, Dec. 9). “Relying on sketchy data, the Bush administration presented a worst-case scenario as an incontrovertible truth and distorted its intelligence on North Korea (much as it did in Iraq), seriously exaggerating the danger that Pyongyang is secretly making uranium-based nuclear weapons,” Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy wrote in this month’s Foreign Affairs magazine. The intelligence was manipulated for “political purposes” as a way to head off potential reconciliation by South Korea and Japan with Pyongyang, thus maintaining the option of “regime change,” Harrison claimed, citing South Korean and Japanese sources that worked with the CIA on North Korea (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Dec. 10). Meanwhile, a senior group of U.S. experts on North Korea that includes Harrison released a report today calling on the Bush administration to focus on North Korea’s plutonium program rather than claims that Pyongyang is working to enrich uranium, AFP reported. “Greater recognition should be given to the urgency of the threat posed by North Korea’s possession of significant quantities of weapons-usable plutonium that could be transferred to third parties,” says the report by the Task Force on Korean Policy, a group of former U.S. military officials, diplomats and experts. North Korea is suspected of possessing 88 pounds of plutonium, enough for four to six nuclear weapons, the group said. The group proposed a four-step resolution to the standoff based on a South Korean proposal made during six-party talks in June. The plans calls for North Korea to make a denuclearization pledge and to dismantle its plutonium infrastructure, while the other negotiating nations guarantee Pyongyang’s security and begin providing energy and food assistance to the impoverished country. The Task Force also recommended continued suspension of a light-water reactor project outlined in the 1994 Agreed Framework. Pyongyang’s suspected uranium program would be addressed and dismantled in the fourth phase (AFP/SpaceWar.com, Dec. 10). North Korean officials told U.S. negotiators last week that Pyongyang favors resuming six-party talks, a U.S. official said yesterday. Pyongyang could receive a variety of economic rewards if it dismantled its nuclear program, the official told the Washington Times. “With [North Korean] denuclearization will come a very rich basket of economic and other incentives that would facilitate their economic development,” the official said. “The pieces are all there. They just need to show up,” the official added (Jeremy Kirk, Washington Times, Dec. 10).
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