Pubdate: Wed, 07 May 2003
Source: Daily Camera (CO)
Copyright: 2003 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.thedailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

U.S. PLANS NEW APPROACH TO NORTH KOREA

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to adjust its policy toward 
North Korea by adopting a two-track approach that would combine new talks 
with threats to increase pressure on the communist state by targeting its 
illegal drug and counterfeiting trade and possibly its missile sales, U.S. 
and Asian officials said Tuesday.

The emerging consensus, which will be refined Wednesday at a meeting of 
President Bush's top foreign policy advisers, would bridge a gap that has 
emerged within the administration since North Korea declared it possesses 
nuclear weapons at talks between U.S., North Korean and Chinese 
representatives in China last month. Administration officials have sought 
to resolve their policy differences, which pit those pushing for 
confrontation with the Pyongyang government and those advocating further 
talks, in advance of next week's visit to Washington by South Korea's new 
president, Roh Moo-hyun.

Adding to the sense of urgency, U.S. sources said Tuesday, intelligence 
analysts within the last 48 hours have seen increasing signs that North 
Korea has begun reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods into weapons-grade 
plutonium. North Korea claimed it had begun the processing at the three-way 
talks in Beijing last month, but it had not been detected by U.S. 
intelligence, apparently until now. The spent fuel would provide North 
Korea which enough nuclear material to build two to three additional 
nuclear bombs within a few months.

In its developing posture toward North Korea, the administration plans to 
insist that any new talks include Japan and South Korea in addition to 
China, officials said. They also will hold out the prospect of a policy 
that, as two officials put it, would "tighten the screws" against the 
North's lucrative illicit trade practices.

The continued talks were sought by the State Department, while increasing 
pressure on Pyongyang was a key objective of the Defense Department and 
other administration advocates of a tougher approach.

"We signed up for the hard side in order to get the soft side," said one 
official who favored further discussions. "Some people only want the hard 
side."

Before the meetings in China, the administration had insisted it would only 
meet with North Korea in a multilateral forum, while North Korea sought 
bilateral talks. The trilateral talks with China were adopted as a 
compromise, but U.S. officials said North Korea signaled that it would 
accept broader talks including Japan and South Korea at any future meetings.

Asian officials, who earlier had appeared uncomfortable with the 
administration's tough line on North Korea, now appear prepared to accept 
the idea that more pressure must be placed on Pyongyang particularly in 
light of its nuclear claims and its often blatant flouting of international 
laws.

Two weeks ago, Australian special forces seized a North Korean freighter 
that allegedly delivered $50 million in heroin. The ship, registered in the 
North Korean port of Nampo but sailing under a flag of the tiny Pacific 
island of Tuvalu, has been cited as evidence of the North Korean 
government's involvement in drug running, amphetamine production and 
counterfeiting.

"The international community cannot condone the illegal activity the North 
Korean government is engaged in," an Asian diplomat said. The North Koreans 
"need to understand this. Some things simply can't go on." Officials are 
still discussing how forcefully the administration and its allies should 
begin to put pressure on North Korea, including whether to threaten actions 
or to more subtly begin to tighten the noose around North Korean illegal 
actions, officials said. The administration could also outline a 
progression of steps, such as targeting illegal activity that finances the 
government and then threatening to disrupt its legal and lucrative trade in 
missiles.

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday cited the need to end North 
Korea's drug trafficking, in addition to its nuclear program and its 
missile proliferation. "This is the time for us to work with our friends 
and allies and try to impress upon North Korea that better opportunities 
await them, support awaits them from nations in the region, if they would 
simply begin acting in a more responsible way than they have in the past," 
he said.

While North Korea's confrontational announcement at the Beijing talks 
dominated the headlines, U.S. officials have concluded that the North 
Koreans did lay a proposal on the table, though one completely unacceptable 
to the Bush administration. Immediately after the meeting, some officials 
had argued that there was likely no reason to hold further talks.

According to U.S. officials, North Korea said it would only give up its 
nuclear weapons and missiles after the United States fulfilled a long list 
of conditions. The conditions included full diplomatic relations with the 
United States and Japan and completion of two light-water nuclear reactors 
in North Korea to help alleviate the country's energy shortages. North 
Korea offered only to announce its intention to give up its nuclear 
programs as the United States began to fulfill its end of the bargain, 
officials said.

Assuming North Korea accepts the administration's conditions for more 
talks, the United States would likely counter with a proposal equally 
unacceptable to Pyongyang, officials said. Depending on the North Korean 
response, U.S. officials would then need to assess whether there is a basis 
for continuing the meetings.

Many within the administration pushing for a tough approach would 
ultimately like to isolate the North Korean government and perhaps force 
its collapse. Under the plan Bush's foreign policy advisers will approve 
Wednesday, both factions in the administration can carry the debate to 
another day, officials said. State can press for more talks in the hopes 
they could eventually lead to actual negotiations, while Defense likely 
would push to expand the pressure tactics against North Korea to include 
sanctions, interdictions and eventually an embargo of North Korea.

The urgency of taking action against North Korea will be heightened if 
intelligence officials conclude that North Korea has begun to reprocess 
spent nuclear fuel, a threshold that put Pyongyang on the path of acquiring 
a sizable nuclear arsenal. "There were some possible indications a few days 
ago that perhaps something was up," including increased human activity at 
the Yongbyon site, a U.S. intellgence official said Tuesday. But no firm 
conclusions have been reached yet, he added.
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