U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill arrives in Beijing Monday for talks with North Korean and Chinese officials (Frederic Brown/Getty Images). U.S., North Korea Reach No Agreement on Six-Nation Talks U.S., North Korean and Chinese officials ended a second day of talks in Beijing today without reaching accord on when to restart six-nation negotiations to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 28). Diplomats at today’s meeting “shared ideas that could help ensure progress when the six-party talks resume,” said a U.S. statement.  “The D.P.R.K. promised to study these ideas.”..Full Story

Europeans Test New U.N. Sanctions Proposal for Iran Three European powers have delivered another set of proposed U.N. sanctions designed to pressure Iran to suspend its nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Nov. 28)...Full Story

South Korean Presidential Candidate Decries U.S. Effort to Freeze North Korean Bank Holdings By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Former South Korean Unification Minister Chong Dong-young, a likely contender for the presidency next year, called for the United States to ease international banking restrictions against North Korea as an inducement for Pyongyang to denuclearize (see GSN, Nov. 20)...Full Story

	Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Sarin Plotter Nets 30-Year Sentence A U.S. judge in Tennessee delivered a 30-year prison sentence yesterday to Demetrius “Van” Crocker, a white supremacist convicted earlier this year of plotting to acquire sarin and explosives to use against government buildings, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Apr. 14, 2006). Arrested in 2004, Crocker was caught on surveillance tapes speaking of his desire to explode a dirty bomb in Washington, D.C., while the U.S. Congress was in session, according to AP.  He was also caught in a sting giving $500 to a federal agent posing as a worker with access to chemical weapons agents. “There is no doubt he had what he needed to cause all sorts of destruction in the United States,” said federal prosecutor Fred Godwin during Crocker’s April trial (Associated Press/WKRN TV (Nashville, Tenn.), Nov. 29). Crocker was ultimately convicted on five charges:  attempted possession of a chemical weapon, inducing another person to acquire a chemical weapon, possession of stolen explosives, possession of explosive material with intent to harm an individual or damage or destroy a building, and possession of an unregistered destructive device (Jackson (Tenn.) Sun, Nov. 29). Back to top

U.S., North Korea Reach No Agreement on Six-Nation Talks U.S., North Korean and Chinese officials ended a second day of talks in Beijing today without reaching accord on when to restart six-nation negotiations to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 28). Diplomats at today’s meeting “shared ideas that could help ensure progress when the six-party talks resume,” said a U.S. statement.  “The D.P.R.K. promised to study these ideas.” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill planned to leave Beijing tomorrow without meeting North Korean officials again, AP reported. This week’s session appeared to feature few, if any, changes to U.S. and North Korean demands, according to AP.  Pyongyang has protested U.S. financial measures imposed last year as well as recent U.N. penalties issued after North Korea’s October nuclear test.  The United States agreed that the sanctions could be discussed during the resumed talks, but would not be dropped as a condition for restarting the talks, AP reported (Audra Ang, Associated Press I/USA Today, Nov. 29). As part of the U.N. sanctions, the Bush administration is proposing to target leader Kim Jong Il by restricting the sale of luxury goods to North Korea, according to AP.  A list of proposed items to be banned includes iPods, cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes and motor sports vehicles. Banning these items could frustrate Kim personally — he is said to enjoy luxury activities — and his ability to reward loyalists in his government, AP reported. “If you take away one of the tools of his control, perhaps you weaken the cohesion of his leadership,” said former State Department nonproliferation official Robert Einhorn.  “It can’t hurt, but whether it works, we don’t know.” Other analysts doubted the embargo would prevent such goods from entering North Korea. Small electronics are “untraceable and available all over the place,” said William Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official.  The problem is there has always been and will always be this group of people who work at getting these goods illegally.” Still, Reinsch said, “It’s a new concept.  It’s kind of creative” (Ted Bridis, Associated Press II/International Herald Tribune, Nov. 29). Back to top       Europeans Test New U.N. Sanctions Proposal for Iran Three European powers have delivered another set of proposed U.N. sanctions designed to pressure Iran to suspend its nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Nov. 28). The new draft penalties are designed to break an impasse among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council:  China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.  The five plus Germany have been unable to agree on measures nations could impose to encourage Tehran to heed a council demand this summer to freeze its uranium enrichment activities. “The general philosophy of the text remains the same, that’s to say targeting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programs, plus the companies that lead them and the individuals behind them,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei. To date, Russia and China have balked at the sanctions proposed by the European states, complaining that they are too harsh, AP reported. The new proposal, crafted by France, Germany and the United Kingdom, was presented “in hopes of taking into account one another’s concerns,” Mattei said (Associated Press, Nov. 29). Back to top       South Korean Presidential Candidate Decries U.S. Effort to Freeze North Korean Bank Holdings By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Former South Korean Unification Minister Chong Dong-young, a likely contender for the presidency next year, called for the United States to ease international banking restrictions against North Korea as an inducement for Pyongyang to denuclearize (see GSN, Nov. 20). Chong, who met with Kim Jong Il in June 2005 as a prelude to restarting the six-party talks, said the $24 million in frozen North Korean assets in Macau’s Banco Delta Asia are an impediment to fruitful negotiations. He also said if North Korea refuses to give up its nuclear weapons program, it could spark a Northeast Asian nuclear arms race, eventually leading to the complete erosion of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty controls. In September 2005, the United States declared the Macau bank accounts part of a money laundering operation to process illicit North Korean cash raised through counterfeiting and drug trafficking. The U.S. declaration effectively led the bank to freeze the funds.  North Korea protested the move and pulled away from a six-nation deal reached just days earlier in which Pyongyang agreed in principle to denuclearize in return for normalized relations with the United States. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon last month, but agreed earlier this month to return to the stalled six-party negotiations, though a starting date has yet to be set (see related GSN story, today). “The U.S. first of all must announce its findings on the Banco Delta Asia accounts,” Chong said yesterday at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies here.  “It must publicly show which of the accounts are from illegal, illicit activities.  The U.S. must lift the sanctions on the accounts proven to be clean.” U.S. officials have played down the significance of the Treasury Department’s financial crackdown, calling it a law-enforcement, anticounterfeiting action.  In his Oct. 31 meeting with North Korean officials, however, lead U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the United States would be willing to discuss financial issues, including the Banco Delta Asia case, according to the State Department. Despite the end of the Cold War, the world is confronted with threats that trump those faced by nations decades ago, Chong said.  He called for “active policy intervention” to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. “The solution to the nuclear problem in North Korea and Iran lie in showing that they can indeed survive, can live better, without nuclear weapons and that economic incentives will follow,” he said. Chong said South Korea is “deeply concerned” about the spread of nuclear weapons in Northeast Asia, something that could become a “nuclear domino effect.” “Should Japan, Taiwan, Korea get their own nuclear weapons the implication on global security would be much graver than North Korea’s nuclear ambitions,” he said, adding that such a spread of nuclear weapon would endanger the survival of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  Chong, a member and former head of the Uri party of current president Roh Moo-hyun, called for the United States to focus on the immediate task of denuclearizing North Korea rather than dream of toppling the North Korean regime. Both Chong and Roh are strong supporters of the Sunshine Policy of South Korea, a policy of stronger involvement with North Korea. “The idea of bringing down the Pyongyang regime is somewhat unrealistic and not very desirable,” he said.  He described South Koreans as unwilling to deal with “economic burden” or “social confusion” of a rushed reunification. “The U.S. must prioritize, focusing on the immediate issue first,” Chong said.  “The nuclear issue is the pressing matter before us now. North Korea’s change will take longer.” As the United States and the other nations in the six-party framework — Russia South Korea, Japan and China, in addition to North Korea — strategize how to handle the nuclear standoff, Chong called for a return to the principles outlined in the September 2005 joint statement.  “North Korea’s nuclear capabilities are elementary, and the six-party talks and processes are still much alive,” he said. He called for pragmatic diplomacy from the United States “rather than relying on idealistic wishful thinking of bringing down the Pyongyang regime.” “All we are saying is we should give North Korea a chance to give up their nuclear weapons, and we will guarantee their regime in return,” Chong said. Back to top       Energy Dept. Overseer Raps Los Alamos Security A U.S. Energy Department review of a recent data security lapse at Los Alamos National Laboratory has found the incident “especially troubling” because the facility has devoted so much money and effort in recent years to correcting past security failures, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported today (see GSN, Nov. 6). The most recent review was spurred by the October discovery of classified information in the home of a former contract worker at the laboratory.  The worker had copied documents onto a portable computer data device which she took to her home intending to work from there, according to her attorney.  She also removed paper documents from the laboratory, according to news reports. “We found that the security framework relating to this incident was seriously flawed,” says a report from department Inspector General Gregory Friedman.  “Specifically, our review disclosed that: In a number of key areas, security policy was non-existent, applied inconsistently, or not followed; critical cyber security internal controls and safeguards were not functioning as intended; and, monitoring by both laboratory and federal officials was inadequate.” “This was especially troubling since the department and the National Nuclear Security Administration have expended tens of millions of dollars upgrading various components of the laboratory's security apparatus, including vast expenditures on cyber security,” the report says (Andy Lenderman, Santa Fe New Mexican, Nov. 29). Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement yesterday that Friedman’s review described “some serious deficiencies and vulnerabilities.” “Unfortunately, we cannot correct the errors of the past,” Bodman said.  “But we will learn from this incident and we will do better” (Deborah Baker, Associated Press/Forbes.com, Nov. 29) Back to top       EU Delegation to Study Pakistani Nuclear Trade Laws Pakistani officials will field questions about the nation’s nuclear export controls from a visiting European Union delegation next month, the Pakistani Business Recorder reported yesterday (see GSN, Mar. 21). Western nations have been concerned with Pakistan’s trade rules following the disclosure that top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan headed an international nuclear smuggling ring for many years (see GSN, Nov. 27).  Pakistani officials plan to describe measures Islamabad has taken to prevent similar activity from recurring, according to sources “We have restricted the export of goods which can be used in proliferation and we will remove the concerns of the EU, if they have any,” said one source (Business Recorder, Nov. 28). Back to top

Hussein Trial Hears Forensics Expert A U.S. forensics expert testified today in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial that he had seen evidence of chemical weapons used to kill Iraqi civilians, Reuters reported (see GSN, Nov. 27). Clyde Snow, a University of Oklahoma specialist who has also investigated mass killings in Argentina, Bosnia and Ethiopia, said soil samples taken from four craters in northern Iraq indicated traces of sarin and mustard gas, according to Reuters. At another site, Snow said he exhumed the bodies of a man and his grandson who appeared to suffer no external wounds, suggesting they had died from exposure to chemical weapons. “These were pretty normal skeletons, so what could have caused these deaths?” he asked. “Iraq is full of skeletal remains from the past centuries,” Snow said.  “Just give me 10 days and I’ll show you a grave for 400 bodies, Arabs and Kurds” (Al-Khairalla/Colvin, Reuters/Washington Post, Nov. 29). Hussein and his lawyers protested Snow’s testimony and demanded non-U.S. experts instead. “No one should imagine I’m trying to defend Saddam Hussein, given the earlier sentence against me,” Hussein said, referring to a death sentence passed down earlier this month in a related trial (see GSN, Nov. 6).  “You can only be executed once, not 10 times. … I’m only trying to defend the truth” (Salaheddin/Keath, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Nov. 29). Back to top

Pakistan Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile Pakistan today successfully tested a Hatf 4, also known as the Shaheen 1, ballistic missile, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 16). The test of the nuclear-capable missile “marked the culmination phase of the training exercise and validated the operational readiness of the Strategic Missile Group … equipped with Shaheen 1 missiles,” a military statement said. The test came two days after India demonstrated an indigenous missile defense capability for the first time (see GSN, Nov. 27). “Pakistan can be justifiably proud of its defense capability and the reliability of its nuclear deterrence,” said Gen. Ehsanul Haq, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (Munir Ahmad, Associated Press/CBC News, Nov. 29) Back to top

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