The Hindu : U.S., allies come down on N. Korea

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 24, 2002

International

International

U.S., allies come down on N. Korea

By S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE DEC.23. Even as the U.S. leads the international chorus in condemning North Korea, the hidden dimensions of its nuclear weapons programme are beginning to come into a sharp focus.

The U.S. as also South Korea and Japan today reaffirmed their present collective strategy of trying to force North Korea, through `peaceful' means, to give up its nuclear brinkmanship.

However, the task is easier said than done, according to diplomatic observers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The reason has much to do with one aspect of North Korea's latest announcement which indicated the possibility that Pyongyang is determined to embark upon nuclear weapons production at the earliest opportunity.

The operative part of the North Korean statement has more to it than meets the eye at first glance. Denouncing the U.S. for `unilaterally' abrogating its part of the bargain under the 1994 Agreed Framework and criticising the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for "whiling away time'', North Korea said "this situation compelled the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to immediately start the work of removing the seals and (also the) monitoring cameras from the frozen nuclear facilities for (the purpose of re-starting) their normal operation to produce electricity''.

This, it was said, "is an urgent issue (required) to make up for (the present) vacuum in the (activity of) power production'' at the nuclear facilities at stake.

The general consensus among diplomats and analysts in the Asia Pacific region is that what is left unsaid is more important than the elaborate emphasis that North Korea has placed on the need to resume "power production'' at the facilities in prime focus.

The `seals' and the ``monitoring cameras'', which the IAEA had installed at five specified facilities, were designed to act as hands and eyes of the agency that seeks to halt nuclear weapons proliferation through a system of ``safeguards'' and special devices.

The "seals'' were designed to prevent Pyongyang from resuming operations at these plants, while the "monitoring cameras'' were devices that would detect any infringement of the injunctions against North Korea.

On the issue of cameras, `Stalinist' North Korea often felt that the IAEA had replicated the Orwellian practices of surveillance that the Capitalist bloc generally blamed on the Communist system.

More important, though, is the likely impact of North Korea's move to remove the seals that the IAEA had on the irradiated spent fuel at these facilities, especially at the plutonium-yielding 5-mw research reactor.

The accumulated stock of spent fuel, when unsealed, could be easily and immediately used to produce nuclear weapons by resorting to suitable reprocessing techniques, it is said.

This aspect is more "alarming'' than the possibility that North Korea would operate a 5-mw unit to meet the needs of an energy-deficient country and patiently garner spent fuel for weapons production.

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