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U.S. Warns of Growing Korean Proliferation Threat
The extended talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs are giving Pyongyang time to further its weapons development, and increasing the risk of those arms falling into terrorist hands, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saturday (see GSN, May 28). “It seems to me they have demonstrated a willingness to export anything,” Rumsfeld said during the Asia Security Conference in Singapore. “And to the extent they have the capability they have indicated they have, reasonable people in the world would have to assume they would be willing to sell or use most of those capabilities,” he added. “Needless to say time works to the advantage of North Korea,” he said. “Assuming their behavior is to continue their programs, the longer it takes, the more dangerous presumably their capabilities would become,” Rumsfeld added. He said the United States was “imperfectly” organized to prevent the smuggling of a radiological bomb or nuclear weapon into the country and said nations must work more closely together on such matters. “I would submit the likelihood of terrorist networks or terrorist states getting their hands on these increasingly powerful weapons and using them is growing every year. Which is why the counterproliferation initiative is so important, countries simply must cooperate together because there is simply no way a single country can effectively deal with the problem of proliferation,” Rumsfeld said (Agence France-Presse/Channel NewsAsia, June 5). Meanwhile, South Korea yesterday urged China to bring more “substantive” proposals to the next round of nuclear talks, saying Beijing’s influence over North Korea could play a pivotal role in resolving the crisis, Agence France-Presse reported. “China seems to enjoy their role as a facilitator for the six-party talks but in reality we haven’t heard the very real substantive proposals from China for the resolution of this nuclear issue,” South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said. “We really appreciate the Chinese role as a facilitator but we hope that China will bring more substantive ideas or proposals in the next round of the six-party talks,” he added. Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that the talks would be held June 23-25, but this has not been officially confirmed, according to Agence France-Presse (Agence France-Presse/Channel NewsAsia, June 6).
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