U.S. Gives Stern Warning To N. Korea

A U.S. envoy vowed to muster "maximum international pressure" on North Korea on Saturday, as a South Korean negotiator visited the communist state to also urge it to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The Bush administration hopes diplomatic pressure on North Korea will persuade Pyongyang to refrain from spreading nuclear weapons technology and to continue abiding by a self-imposed moratorium on test firing missiles.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, speaking after meetings with Chinese and South Korean officials, said no timetable was set in the campaign to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

Kelly, however, stressed that the isolated, impoverished North's best way to resume dialogue with Washington to improve ties and win badly needed aid is to give up the program that violated a 1994 agreement with the Washington.

"The United States is focused now on consultations with friends and allies and we hope to bring maximum international pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions," Kelly said at a news conference after meeting South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong and key national security advisers.

A U.S. official said the key goals of Undersecretary of State John Bolton will be to persuade North Korea of the U.S. view during a five-nation mission that began shortly after the administration disclosed that North Korea acknowledged it was attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

Bolton was in China on Friday and plans additional stops in Russia, France, Britain and Belgium.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration also wants these countries to exert pressure on North Korea not to reprocess spent fuel, a key element in the production of nuclear weapons.

On Wednesday, Washington said North Korea admitted having a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement the two countries signed in Geneva. The admission came at Oct. 3-5 talks in Pyongyang, when Kelly confronted his North Korean counterparts with evidence of a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

North Korea agreed in 1999 to a moratorium on missile testing and said recently it expects to continue it indefinitely. The United States has welcomed the pledge but remains concerned about North Korean exports of long range missiles to the Middle East and elsewhere.

The administration is now worried that, in addition to missiles, Pyongyang will attempt to export weapons technology.

Kelly flew to Seoul early Saturday from Beijing where he and Undersecretary of State John Bolton held two lengthy meetings with Chinese officials about the North's nuclear program.

Kelly planned to travel to Japan on Sunday.

"The Chinese made it very clear that they strongly oppose any nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula," Kelly said. "I find that to be a very credible statement."

The U.S. envoy traveled to North Korea on Oct. 3-5, when communist negotiators admitted to a secret nuclear program after Kelly confronted his North Korean counterparts with evidence of a program to enrich uranium for atomic bombs.

South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun arrived in the North's capital, Pyongyang, Saturday with a 48-member delegation for three days of talks.

"I will have straight talk about the nuclear issue," he said before leaving.

Both Koreas had agreed earlier to use the latest round of Cabinet-level talks to promote reconciliation on the divided Korean peninsula. Now Jeong says his most urgent task will be to gauge whether the North wants dialogue or confrontation.

The only official event scheduled for Saturday was a dinner hosted by North Korean Prime Minister Hong Song Nam, Seoul officials said.

South Korea says dialogue is the best way to deal with concerns about North Korea. News of North Korea's nuclear program threw the South's so-called "sunshine" policy of engagement into disarray, creating the perception that the North has duped the United States and South Korea for years.

South Korea and Japan, two key U.S. allies in Northeast Asia, are most vulnerable to North Korea's arsenal of weapons.

In Japan, a major newspaper reported Saturday that the government may ask that a U.S.-led consortium temporarily stop construction on light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea as a result of Pyongyang's admission.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda will discuss the issue with Kelly, according to Japan's largest daily, the Yomiuri, which cited unidentified government sources.

Under the 1994 agreement, North Korea pledged to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for construction of two light-water reactors, financed mostly by South Korea and Japan. As part of the deal, the United States also provides North Korea with 500,000 tons of heating oil annually.

When asked whether the United States and allies may scrap the 1994 deal, Kelly said: "No decisions have been made on any next steps."

But he said the situation now "is not a replay of 1993 and 1994," indicating that Washington will be much tougher now.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said he believed the North Koreans already have a "small number" of nuclear weapons.

North Korea has been silent about its program and the international uproar it has triggered.

Earlier, an administration official confirmed Pakistan helped North Korea in its nuclear weapons program.

But that assistance took place before the September eleventh terror attacks. And since then, the official notes, Pakistan and the U.S. have become closely allied in the war on terrorism.

Also, it took place before Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf took office in 1999.

Top U.S. officials are avoiding any direct criticism of Pakistan.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was asked about it -- and would say only that it shows the U.S. policy toward Pakistan in the 1990s "wasn't exactly a glowing success."

Pakistan -- and Russia, too -- are denying they supplied nuclear equipment.

China also is believed to be one of North Korea's sources. And President Bush is expected to discuss the issue during a meeting next week with China's president.

North Korea's decision to enrich uranium rather than Pyongyang's first choice, plutonium, means it is pursuing a nuclear weapons technology that's easier to hide and more reliable, but harder to mount on a missile.

Still, North Korea can put a nuclear warhead on any of its missiles, including those under development that may be able to reach U.S. territory.

"They've clearly demonstrated a missile technology far beyond the range of Japan," said Charles Curtis, president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private group dedicated to stemming the spread of nuclear weapons. "Putting a warhead on a missile isn't a problem for them."

North Korea has the technology to make smaller, more advanced weapons using much less of either uranium or plutonium, however, said Curtis of the Nuclear Threat Institute, who as a top Energy Department official had been involved in the effort to isolate the 8,000 North Korean fuel rods.
"You have this bomb material sitting there right now that they could reprocess," said Daniel Pinkston, a Korea specialist at the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

That means North Korea could make weapons small enough to fit atop any of its arsenal of missiles. Pyongyang has hundreds of Scud and related missiles that can hit South Korea and parts of China and Russia, as well as several dozen No-Dong missiles that can hit Japan.

North Korea also is developing Taepo-dong missiles capable of hitting targets more than 3,000 miles away - putting Alaska and Guam within range.

All those missiles can carry warheads of 1,000 pounds or more, enough for a nuclear warhead at least as powerful as the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs.

"You can say, 'Well, North Korea's missiles aren't that accurate, their guidance systems are not very sophisticated.' But all you need is one," Pinkston said.