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Washington Times
August 8, 2003
Pg. 1
U.S. Ready To Offer N. Korea Guarantee
Security pledge not binding pact
By Nicholas Kralev, The Washington Times
The Bush administration yesterday said it is prepared to offer written security guarantees to North Korea in the form of a joint document with other regional powers in upcoming nuclear talks.
Although such a pledge would not be a formal treaty subject to congressional ratification, it nevertheless could be endorsed by Congress in a resolution, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters at the Washington Foreign Press Center.
"There should be ways to capture assurances to the North Koreans — from not only the United States, but we believe from other parties in the region — that there is no hostile intent among the parties that might be participating in such a discussion," Mr. Powell said.
"When one comes up with such a document, such a written assurance, there are ways that Congress can take note of it without it being a treaty or some kind of pact. A resolution is something like that — taking note of something."
In Tokyo, the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported today that diplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet next Wednesday and Thursday in Washington to coordinate policy on North Korea ahead of six-nation talks on the communist state's nuclear weapons program.
The newspaper, quoting Japanese government sources, said senior diplomats from the three countries would hold "informal" talks on a joint proposal to North Korea.
The White House has said the North Korean nuclear threat can be dealt with diplomatically, but has not ruled out any options, including military action.
A security guarantee to North Korea in the context of a broad regional pledge with other countries would not change that stance because the guarantee would express intent but not be legally binding, administration officials said.
The issue is part of an intensive diplomatic effort to convene a meeting among the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia in the next few weeks.
Pyongyang repeatedly has demanded a nonaggression pact with Washington since President Bush assumed office in January 2001.
But the administration has rejected the idea, saying Mr. Bush's oral assurance that he has no intention of invading the North should be enough to satisfy the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Now, in an attempt to address North Korea's concerns before the planned multilateral talks, where Washington wants Pyongyang to agree to scrap its nuclear weapons program, the administration is pondering a compromise solution.
Several regional leaders, including South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in an interview with The Washington Times in May, have called on the White House to consider offering a security assurance.
As it has done with the whole nuclear standoff, the Bush administration is trying to ensure that any security guarantees to the North involve all countries in the region.
That approach, the administration argues, would make Pyongyang less likely to cheat or break any new agreement it may sign, and would provide better accountability mechanisms if it did.
In explaining the logic, the administration cites the North's development of a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 nuclear deal with the Clinton administration, which Pyongyang admitted in October.
Since then, the North has reopened its plutonium plant in Yongbyon, closed after the 1994 agreement was signed, expelled U.N. inspectors and claims to have reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods that can be used in plutonium production — an assertion that has not been independently confirmed.
China, the most likely host of the multilateral talks and the most diplomatically active of the six participants in their preparation, yesterday sent a delegation to Pyongyang.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing is scheduled to visit Seoul next week. A U.S.-North Korea-China meeting was held in Beijing in April, but produced no results.
Russia, whose involvement in the nuclear diplomacy up to now has been limited, was the last country to be added to the list of participants in the talks, largely at Pyongyang's insistence.
Moscow yesterday said that it is not aware of any other conditions the North may have.
"The North Korean side has put forward no conditions and to my understanding Pyongyang is interested exactly in six-way talks," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told Japan's NHK television.
"The most difficult stage will come when these talks begin. And it is hard to expect any quick success. All parties will apparently need to be extremely patient, display constructive approaches and readiness to listen to the other side," Mr. Fedotov said.
Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday that the administration is satisfied that its strategy of making the nuclear issue multilateral, rather than bilateral, is working well.
"It's a tough regime to deal with and heaven knows it's an opaque regime," Miss Rice said in Dallas. "But we're fairly sanguine that if you're going to get this done, it's going to have to be in coordination with other states."
Meanwhile, the North criticized upcoming annual joint war exercises between the United States and South Korea, saying they put in doubt Washington's intent of no hostility.
"The adventurous war game is aimed at steadily intensifying tensions on the Korean peninsula and, eventually, making a pre-emptive attack on [North Korea] and attaining the sinister strategic goal of the U.S. in Northeast Asia," said a statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry carried by the official KCNA news agency.
August 8, 2003
Pg. 1
U.S. Ready To Offer N. Korea Guarantee
Security pledge not binding pact
By Nicholas Kralev, The Washington Times
The Bush administration yesterday said it is prepared to offer written security guarantees to North Korea in the form of a joint document with other regional powers in upcoming nuclear talks.
Although such a pledge would not be a formal treaty subject to congressional ratification, it nevertheless could be endorsed by Congress in a resolution, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters at the Washington Foreign Press Center.
"There should be ways to capture assurances to the North Koreans — from not only the United States, but we believe from other parties in the region — that there is no hostile intent among the parties that might be participating in such a discussion," Mr. Powell said.
"When one comes up with such a document, such a written assurance, there are ways that Congress can take note of it without it being a treaty or some kind of pact. A resolution is something like that — taking note of something."
In Tokyo, the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported today that diplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet next Wednesday and Thursday in Washington to coordinate policy on North Korea ahead of six-nation talks on the communist state's nuclear weapons program.
The newspaper, quoting Japanese government sources, said senior diplomats from the three countries would hold "informal" talks on a joint proposal to North Korea.
The White House has said the North Korean nuclear threat can be dealt with diplomatically, but has not ruled out any options, including military action.
A security guarantee to North Korea in the context of a broad regional pledge with other countries would not change that stance because the guarantee would express intent but not be legally binding, administration officials said.
The issue is part of an intensive diplomatic effort to convene a meeting among the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia in the next few weeks.
Pyongyang repeatedly has demanded a nonaggression pact with Washington since President Bush assumed office in January 2001.
But the administration has rejected the idea, saying Mr. Bush's oral assurance that he has no intention of invading the North should be enough to satisfy the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Now, in an attempt to address North Korea's concerns before the planned multilateral talks, where Washington wants Pyongyang to agree to scrap its nuclear weapons program, the administration is pondering a compromise solution.
Several regional leaders, including South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in an interview with The Washington Times in May, have called on the White House to consider offering a security assurance.
As it has done with the whole nuclear standoff, the Bush administration is trying to ensure that any security guarantees to the North involve all countries in the region.
That approach, the administration argues, would make Pyongyang less likely to cheat or break any new agreement it may sign, and would provide better accountability mechanisms if it did.
In explaining the logic, the administration cites the North's development of a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 nuclear deal with the Clinton administration, which Pyongyang admitted in October.
Since then, the North has reopened its plutonium plant in Yongbyon, closed after the 1994 agreement was signed, expelled U.N. inspectors and claims to have reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods that can be used in plutonium production — an assertion that has not been independently confirmed.
China, the most likely host of the multilateral talks and the most diplomatically active of the six participants in their preparation, yesterday sent a delegation to Pyongyang.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing is scheduled to visit Seoul next week. A U.S.-North Korea-China meeting was held in Beijing in April, but produced no results.
Russia, whose involvement in the nuclear diplomacy up to now has been limited, was the last country to be added to the list of participants in the talks, largely at Pyongyang's insistence.
Moscow yesterday said that it is not aware of any other conditions the North may have.
"The North Korean side has put forward no conditions and to my understanding Pyongyang is interested exactly in six-way talks," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told Japan's NHK television.
"The most difficult stage will come when these talks begin. And it is hard to expect any quick success. All parties will apparently need to be extremely patient, display constructive approaches and readiness to listen to the other side," Mr. Fedotov said.
Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday that the administration is satisfied that its strategy of making the nuclear issue multilateral, rather than bilateral, is working well.
"It's a tough regime to deal with and heaven knows it's an opaque regime," Miss Rice said in Dallas. "But we're fairly sanguine that if you're going to get this done, it's going to have to be in coordination with other states."
Meanwhile, the North criticized upcoming annual joint war exercises between the United States and South Korea, saying they put in doubt Washington's intent of no hostility.
"The adventurous war game is aimed at steadily intensifying tensions on the Korean peninsula and, eventually, making a pre-emptive attack on [North Korea] and attaining the sinister strategic goal of the U.S. in Northeast Asia," said a statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry carried by the official KCNA news agency.
Do you guys think a security guarantee will actually pursaude N. Korea to scrap its nuclear program or not.
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