#5 - RW 272
RIA Novosti
September 1, 2003
COMMENTARY:
THE USA SHOULD NOT BE A NUCLEAR CLUB OF ONE

MOSCOW, August 29th, 2003. (RIA Novosti political analyst Vladimir Simonov). – Pyongyang obviously has a talent for creating surprises. It produced one on Thursday at Beijing’s six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear programme.

North Korea voiced its desire officially to proclaim itself a nuclear power and go on with the nuclear weapons’ tests.

In addition to this surprise, the head of the North Korean delegation Kim Jong-il reminded those present his country already had the delivery means. He obviously had in mind modifications of the Taepodong-1 missile, launches of which began back in 1998.

It became clear to everybody that Pyongyang had not dropped its favourite habit of constructing its diplomatic game through a combination of compliance and belligerence. Agreeing, on the whole, to the idea of dialogue about the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear-free status, Pyongyang has not stopped threatening nuclear tests.

However, the mind of the North Korean negotiators is not one big muddle to send contradictory signals to the other participants in the Beijing meeting, i.e. the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. It is a conscientious attempt to elevate tension and confuse Pyongyang's main enemy in the form of Washington.

The United States has taken the blow stoically. The White House spokesperson Clair Buchan has called the first round of the Beijing talks "successful." As to Pyongyang's threat to begin nuclear tests, Buchan said it was one in a series of bellicose declarations separating North Korea from the rest of the world.

The rest of the world has long seen how Pyongyang is trying to play two cards at the same time, i.e. dialogue and blackmail. The new fit of nuclear ambitions will hardly bring closer the goals North Korea has set itself.

If it does proclaim itself a nuclear power, it will never get the United States' guarantees, albeit vague, against military intervention, the long-awaited economic aid or resumption of oil supplies, which were ended in late 2002.

Today's close ally of Pyongyang, China, certainly cannot like the spectre of a nuclear power on its borders. As a result, North Korea could lose its largest supplier of humanitarian aid and electricity.

As regards Seoul, it has always condemned its neighbour's nuclear programme. But its position is softer than Washington's, because Seoul fears that a too unceremonious economic and military form of pressure on the Democratic People’s Republic could result in a backlash against South Korea, which is well within the reach of the North Korean weapons.

Now, belligerent declarations of the sort in Beijing on Thursday may make Seoul lose patience. And then nothing can prevent President No Mu-hyon from asking George W.Bush to take the "further steps" against Pyongyang to which the American-South Korean communiqué hinted at last May.

Pyongyang's nuclear blackmail has toughened Japan’s position, too. It has not yet recovered from the test of a North Korean missile, which flew above Japan's largest island, Honshu, five years ago. The feeling of a permanent threat from the Korean Peninsula has forced Tokyo to join the international initiative aimed at intercepting at sea weapons of mass destruction from rogue states.

Following Kim Jong-il's threatening tirade, Russia’s role as a mediator is complicated. Russia’s chief delegate at the six-party talks, Alexander Losyukov, has on many occasions let it be understood that the barriers in the way of further dialogue are the obstinacy of Pyongyang and Washington. Neither of them wants to reduce the number of their demands and conditions. Moscow has warned that every coming ultimatum will boomerang. As soon as the North Korean side voiced its intention on Thursday to begin nuclear tests, Washington snapped. Director of the Global Security analytical centre John Pyke, who is close to the Bush administration, threatened that no other choice remained for Washington but to strike the North Korean nuclear facilities.

All this can only be regretted. However, maybe the time has come to think about why states like North Korea are beginning openly to insist on their right to possess nuclear weapons? It is beyond doubt that they are driven by a well-grounded fear: after Afghanistan and Iraq they may become the next targets for a preventive American attack.

And besides, is Washington so innocent when it imperiously dictates to other states "don't even think of becoming nuclear powers"?

Although it preaches the non-proliferation regime, the United States is far from setting an example of how to observe it. On the contrary, the United States is little by little expanding its research into new kinds of nuclear weapons.

Mohamed Elbaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, recently drew the world’s attention to the glaring double standards.

"The government of the United States does not want other states to have nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, it is arming itself," he said in an interview to the German weekly Stern.

Elbaradei had in mind not only George Bush's plans to deploy a new anti-missile defence system in space. Washington's commitments under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are also in stark contrast to the developments under way in the American nuclear centres of so-called mini-bombs that are designed to destroy underground concrete bunkers.

"As a result, only as handful of privileged states will find themselves under the nuclear defence umbrella, with the rest of the world beyond it. If we don't stop using double standards, we shall be piled high with an even greater number of nuclear weapons. We are at the cross-roads now," the IAEA head warned.

Elbaradei has compared the present International Atomic Energy Agency with a fire brigade. "Today it is Iraq, tomorrow it will be North Korea, the day after tomorrow it will be Iran. What next?," he wondered.

The answer is: there is no good or bad nuclear weapon. A situation when "irresponsible", "ill-wishing" states like Iran and North Korea seeking to gain the latter are punished cannot be allowed to develop. Likewise, the USA cannot be allowed to improve and multiply the former. Nuclear non-proliferation should apply to everyone, not just the likes of North Korea.

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