U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday he would work with other countries to help persuade North Korea to abandon its newly revealed uranium enrichment program. The United States was not considering using military force to accomplish that goal, Bush said (see GSN, Oct. 21).
“This is a chance for people who love freedom and peace to work together to deal with an emerging threat,” Bush said. “I believe we can deal with this threat peacefully, particularly if we work together.”
Bush said he would use meetings scheduled during the next week with the leaders of China, Japan and Russia to discuss how to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program. While North Korea has extended an offer of discussions, the United States will consult with allies first, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
“International pressure will come to bear on North Korea to make them realize the dangers that they are pursuing, in terms of the future for them will be increasingly isolated if they go down the road that they have indicated they’re going down,” Fleischer said.
Bush is to meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin Friday. North Korea will be a key issue in a discussion on how the United States and China can cooperate to deal with “the true threats of the 21st century,” Bush said. North Korea would also be a topic of discussion during a Bush trip to Mexico for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, he said
Bush also outlined why the United States would attempt a diplomatic approach with North Korea, but has threatened the use of military force against Iraq, which has not acknowledged that it is pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
“[Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein is unique, in this sense: He has thumbed his nose at the world for 11 years,” Bush said, referring to the U.N. resolutions Hussein has been accused of violating. “What makes him even more unique is the fact he’s actually gassed his own people. He has used weapons of mass destruction on neighboring countries, and he’s used weapons of mass destruction on his own citizenry. He wants to have a nuclear weapon. He has made it very clear he hates the United States and, as importantly, he hates friends of ours” (Mike Allen, Washington Post, Oct. 22).
Status of 1994 Agreed Framework in Doubt
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said yesterday the United States has not yet decided whether to withdraw from the 1994 Agreed Framework — the U.S.-North Korean agreement meant to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons efforts, according to the Asahi News Service. The day before, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the agreement was finished.
Kelly said the United States is still considering how to proceed with the framework, under which North Korea agreed to limit its nuclear activities to two light-water reactors provided by an international consortium. Kelly, who led the U.S. delegation to Pyongyang in early October, made his comments during a meeting yesterday with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi in Tokyo (Asahi News Service, Oct. 22).
No decisions have yet been made to end U.S. fuel oil shipments to North Korea or the construction of the two light-water reactors, both provisions of the framework, while the United States consults with its allies, one official said.
“The whole situation is very complex,” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. “That’s why we’re taking time to consult with friends and allies and with the Congress before we make or announce any decisions” (David Sands, Washington Times, Oct. 22).
Former Official Praises Framework
The Agreed Framework successfully ended North Korea’s plutonium production program and should not be abandoned, Robert Gallucci, the chief U.S. negotiator of the framework, said yesterday.
“Let’s everyone — everyone — recognize that the Agreed Framework stopped North Korea’s plutonium program,” Gallucci said. The plutonium came from Soviet-designed nuclear reactors that North Korea agreed to shut down in exchange for the two light-water reactors.
“We’ve got to end this feeling that we were snookered in 1994,” said Gallucci, dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He described discussions “about whether we were cheated” as “silly.”
In light of North Korea acknowledging its uranium enrichment program, “we’re no worse off now than we were then. In fact, we’re better off” than before the signing of the framework, Gallucci said. North Korea has continued to suspend its plutonium program and remains a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, he said.
The United States should not be shocked that North Korea has attempted to enriched uranium, Gallucci said. “Can we be disappointed? I think we’re allowed to be so.”
Instead of withdrawing from the framework, however, the United States should push for new requirements, including the end of North Korea’s uranium enrichment program and “the initiation of long-awaited special inspections,” Gallucci said. In exchange, the Bush administration should be prepared to offer political and economic cooperation, he said.
“The idea that we will not negotiate — that makes you feel good ... because you can’t compromise,” Gallucci said, referring to the White House. “So if we don’t want to call it that, that’s fine, but I hope the administration will engage in discussions” (Elizabeth Manning, United Press International, Oct. 22).
Inter-Korea Talks
During the third day of a set of inter-Korea talks yesterday, South Korean delegates demanded that North Korea clarify its position on its nuclear weapons program and called on Pyongyang to abide by the Agreed Framework, according to the South Korean Yonhap news agency.
North Korean officials said they agreed in principle that the nuclear weapons issue should be resolved by dialogue, but refused to address the issue in a joint statement to be drafted at the meeting, Yonhap reported (Yonhap/BBC Monitoring, Oct. 22).
KEDO
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which oversees the construction of the two light-water reactors for North Korea, plans to proceed as usual until it is ordered to stop. It is expected to hold working-level talks today with Pyongyang on the creation of a satellite network as part of the project.
A group of KEDO negotiators traveled to Pyongyang yesterday for a three-day meeting on the creation of a satellite connection between Seoul and the Kumho district in North Korea’s South Hamkyong province, according to the Korea Times.
“So far we have not heard any position on the light-water nuclear reactor construction,” a KEDO official said. “The working-level talks will proceed as planned” (Sohn Suk-joo, Korea Times, Oct. 22).
Japanese Aid to North Korea at Risk
Japan will stop financing the construction of the light-water reactors and will suspend normalization talks with North Korea if there is no progress made on halting Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, a Japanese official said yesterday.
“Of course the negotiations would halt,” the official, Katsunari Suzuki, said in response to reporters’ questions. If Japan were to learn that North Korea “is carrying out nuclear development, then we must suspend at a minimum, and in certain cases, must think about terminating it,” he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, however, called for optimism about talks to normalize relations with North Korea, scheduled to be held in Malaysia starting Oct. 29. “One must not assume they are doomed from the start,” Koizumi said.
The visit by the State Department’s Kelly to Japan helped persuade Tokyo to take a harder stance toward North Korea, according to U.S. diplomats.
“We are now in sync with the Japanese,” a U.S. diplomat said at the end of Kelly’s five-day trip to Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul. “They have said they are not going to give any money without resolution of the nuclear issues.”
North Korea has become heavily dependent on international aid to address humanitarian concerns, according to the New York Times. The threat of an end to Japanese aid could have an effect
“A friend of mine at the Foreign Ministry who met with the North Koreans about 30 times said all they want to talk about is money, money, money,” said Hatsuhisa Takashima, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman. “They are desperate to get another source of money” (James Brooke, New York Times, Oct. 22).
For further information, see:
Agreed Framework Text
KEDO
A U.S. economic offering, intended to help Russia end its nuclear assistance to Iran, has met resistance in Moscow, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 11).
The United States offered to lift restrictions on the Russian importation of U.S.-controlled spent nuclear fuel — a move officials believe could mean billions of dollars in potential storage and reprocessing profits — in return for a Russian halt of construction on a nuclear reactor in the Iranian coastal city of Bushehr.
The United States currently controls the disposition of 90 percent of the world’s spent fuel. Environmentalists and some U.S. lawmakers oppose the lifting of the restriction, saying Russian will poison its environment and will not provide sufficient security.
Russia, however, is hesitant to forgo the $800 million Iranian Bushehr project in favor of U.S. promises that officials say are unreliable. Specifically, Russian officials are upset that Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions are still in place — the United States was to lift them return for Russian support in the war on terrorism. Jackson-Vanik language bars normal U.S. trade relations with countries that do not have market economies or open emigration policies.
“It’s better to have a bird in the hand than two in the bush,” Russian Atomic Energy Ministry spokesman Yuri Bespalko said.
John Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state, is visiting Moscow today and plans to discuss the Iranian issue with Russian officials (Peter Baker, Washington Post, Oct. 22).
The U.S. Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration and the State Department have completed a joint program with Uzbekistan to increase security at an Uzbek nuclear research facility located near the capital of Tashkent, the NNSA said today (see GSN, Oct. 10).
The improvements at the Uzbek Institute of Nuclear Physics included an enhanced security perimeter around the institute’s research reactor, containing detection sensors, cameras and lights. Personnel from the NNSA Office of Nonproliferation and International Security, the State Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund, Sandia National Laboratory and the institute participated in the security upgrade.
Security needs at the institute became a greater concern when the threat of terrorism escalated in Central Asia, an NNSA press release said. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the security upgrade at the Uzbek institute was part of an overall nonproliferation effort that is among his highest priorities.
“The efforts of Uzbek officials were crucial in furthering international nonproliferation and counterterrorism efforts,” Abraham said in a press statement. “By increasing security at this location we have contributed to improving the national security of the United States and others in the international community” (National Nuclear Security Administration release, Oct. 21).
New research and development efforts at the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, owned by the Energy Department, might lead to a resumption of nuclear testing, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today (see GSN, Aug. 16).
The three U.S. weapons laboratories — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico — are working on a number of new nuclear weapons research projects, such as smaller “bunker-busting” warheads and new plutonium “pits,” or triggers, for existing warheads (see GSN, Sept. 20). The U.S. Congress has also approved millions of dollars in funding to reduce the time needed to prepare the Nevada Test Site for additional testing (see GSN, Sept. 17).
While the Bush administration has not yet formally requested permission to conduct an actual nuclear test, the more the U.S. military demands from research, the greater the need for new tests will become, weapons laboratory officials said.
“My view right now is there is no need to go back to testing,” said Michael Anastasio, director of Lawrence Livermore. “But if the country demands more of us, the need for testing goes up.”
Experts warned against introducing new or modified warheads to the U.S. nuclear arsenal without testing.
“Certainly, you have to test whether it [a bunker-buster warhead] is going to survive after it goes into the ground,” said Harold Agnew, former director of Los Alamos. “No amount of computer testing can do the job” (see related GSN story, today).
If the new plutonium triggers are deployed, even in old nuclear warheads, “it would be the first weapon put into the stockpile without a test,” which would be extremely risky, said Don McCoy, a senior weapons scientist at Los Alamos.
Increased Morale
The expanded research and development efforts at the U.S. weapons laboratories have led to increases in funding and morale, according to the Chronicle. Two years ago, the laboratories were criticized for a number of security lapses, including the Wen Ho Lee espionage case (see GSN, Jan. 15), and critics called for reduced funding and staff.
Now, funding for the laboratories has increased to $6 billion this fiscal year, up from $3.2 billion in fiscal 1995, the Chronicle reported. The laboratories’ funding levels are expected to increase even further if some programs are funded directly by the planned homeland security department, as has been proposed, according to the Chronicle.
“I actually had a fear for the future viability of the lab,” Anastasio said. “It just feels very different now. It’s a positive tone as opposed to a going-out-of-business tone” (James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 22).
The U.S. Sandia National Laboratories yesterday announced it had reached agreement with Seattle computer maker Cray Inc. to build the fastest supercomputer in the laboratories’ history (see GSN, Aug. 6).
The contract is worth $90 million and calls for the “massively parallel processing supercomputer” to be completed by fiscal 2004.
The computer — named Red Storm — will be able to complete 40 trillion calculations per second, which is seven times more powerful than fastest computers currently operated by the laboratories.
Supercomputers are used to simulate nuclear explosions to determine the reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
“This computer will allow modeling and simulation of complex problems that were only recently thought impractical, if not impossible,” said Tom Hunter, Sandia’s senior vice president for nuclear weapons programs. “Calculations that would have taken months only a dozen years ago will now be done in a matter of minutes” (Associated Press, Oct. 22)
International Atomic Energy Agency officials are in Taiwan and will begin an annual three-day inspection of the island’s nuclear research facilities tomorrow (see GSN, Aug. 23).
The five-member delegation will visit the National Tsinghua University, the defense ministry’s Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology and the Institute of Nuclear Research, according to Chen Yi-ben, director of planning for Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council. The IAEA representatives have been in discussions with the council on nuclear safeguards.
“It is our country’s standing policy to abide by the international Nonproliferation Treaty and not to develop nuclear weapons,” Chen said (Agence France-Presse, Oct. 22).
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