Last week, under pressure from U.S. diplomats concerning reports of Korean uranium acquisitions, North Korea publicly announced that it is now a nuclear nation. This news comes in direct violation of a 1994 non-proliferation pact signed in conjunction with South Korea, Japan and the United States. North Korea is one of the countries President George W. Bush listed as part of the "axis of evil" in the last State of the Union address. The United States is trying to rally international pressure against North Korea in an effort to force them to abandon their nuclear weapons program. Due to the controversial and more pressing issue of war against Iraq, however, the United States has only put limited effort into warnings against North Korea. The United States should continue its campaign to try to force North Korea away from nuclear weapons through international pressure with as much effort as possible.
North Korea has been viewed as a rogue nation for quite some time but has not recently engaged in much questionable activity. Yet certain actions in the past decade, such as the launching of a "test" medium-range missile over Japan, hint at questionable motives for the North Korean military. In addition, it is known that North Korea is further developing and already possesses other weapons of mass destruction such as biological and chemical armaments ("How do you solve a problem like Korea?" Time Magazine, Oct. 18).
North Korea stated on Monday that it was willing to negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons program in exchange for normalized relations with the United States. Some analysts believe that North Korea is trying to use its nuclear weapons as diplomatic bargaining chips, as it has been trying for several years to improve relations with Washington ("Inside out: how North Korea sees the world," CNN.com, Oct. 22). However, breaking a treaty and using weapons of mass destruction as negotiation concessions does not appear to be the most productive method for garnering the United States' trust.
President Bush has not yet acknowledged whether he will begin diplomatic talks for a "trade" of the kind mentioned above. He has announced that he will meet with China's president at the Bush ranch in Texas and hold talks with Russian, South Korean and Japanese representatives in Mexico to decide how to deal with this new situation.
The breaking of the 1994 Agreed Framework Treaty should be the greatest cause for alarm. Through this agreement, North Korea was to be provided light water nuclear facilities built by an international consortium in exchange for a promise not to build nuclear weapons. According to CNN, the treaty made sure that North Korea's nuclear power needs would be met as long as no danger would come from such technological advances. The North Koreans have proved their disregard for such international accords by building nuclear weapons anyway.
Even though North Korea may not represent a direct threat to the United States, some of its allies and military sales customers do. As North Korea is constantly in search of revenue streams, they have turned their arms development programs into moneymakers. Previous arms transactions have included missile sales to Iran, Syria and Pakistan. Both Iran and Syria have been identified by the U.S. State Department as countries that support terrorist organizations and activities. Although the current regime in Pakistan is friendly to the United States, the Pakistani populace is a hotbed of anti-American fervor and the present leadership could potentially be overthrown by radical elements that want to harm the United States. If North Korea has been selling missiles and other arms to these countries, there is no guarantee that they won't sell some of their nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction as well. Iran, Syria and Pakistan are countries that should not have easy access to North Korean arms. These countries could provide avenues for terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda to gain weapons of mass destruction, as their governments or populations have historically supported terrorist organizations.
Unfortunately, there are only limited options for the United States, South Korea and Japan to coerce North Korea to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction or at least end its nuclear arms program. Because of the sovereign system of states and the weakness of international law, there is no penalty for North Korea having broken its word in violating the Agreed Framework Treaty.
The most viable solution is for the nations of the world to cooperate in pressuring North Korea through economic sanctions and political weight to end its weapons programs. The nations that have the most reason to fear North Korea are South Korea and Japan on the front lines, as well as the United States indirectly. For this reason, these countries must direct as much political pressure as possible to have other countries join in condemning the North Koreans. Though it is a weak solution, it is the only one short of military intervention, which in this case would be unjustified. Economic sanctions and political pressure must be used as potently as possible.
(Alex Rosemblat's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at arosemblat@
cavalierdaily.com.)
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