Editorials

[ OUR OPINION ]

Compliance with
nuke agreements
must be assured

THE ISSUE North Korea has acknowledged that it has been secretly developing nuclear weapons in violation of international agreements.

NORTH Korea's acknowledgment that it is making bomb-grade nuclear material in defiance of international agreements requires prompt pressure from its neighbors and the United States. The unapologetic admission appears to be a desperate tactic to extort further economic assistance for the impoverished country. Diplomacy should be used to offer humanitarian aid while gaining assurance of disarmament through means that North Korea has resisted in the past. Pressure also should be put on Pakistan to stop contributing to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Surrounded by China, Russia, Japan and South Korea -- where 37,000 U.S. troops are deployed -- North Korea obviously is not preparing to launch a nuclear strike against anyone. Its flouting of the 1994 agreement by admitting that it has secretly developed nuclear weapons and possesses "more powerful weapons" seems instead to be a ploy to obtain more fuel, food and money for its starving people as winter approaches.

The Bush administration is right in its assessment that North Korea, while included in its "axis of evil," is different from Iraq, which has used chemical weapons against its neighbors and its own people. However, North Korea is more dangerous than a mouse trying feebly to roar; its nuclear capabilities surpass those of Iraq. North Korea's statement that its agreement to freeze its nuclear program has been "nullified" carries an implied threat that it could remove from storage nuclear fuel rods with enough plutonium to produce numerous nuclear weapons.

North Korea agreed in 1994 to dismantle its nuclear program over a 10-year period and allow full inspections in exchange for a huge aid program financed by the United States and its allies. That included free fuel oil to North Korea and construction of two light-water reactors, financed by South Korea and Japan, that would be less useful for producing bomb-grade plutonium than North Korea's graphite reactors. Work on those reactors began little more than a year ago.

North Korea has tried in recent months to thaw relations with longtime adversaries. It apologized for a naval battle with South Korea in the Yellow Sea and for the kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s. Those overtures are hardly moves toward military confrontation. Instead, they indicate that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is impatient and has been courting his new benefactors for speedier help.

Kim's brazen attempt at blackmail should not be rewarded. But neither should it prompt economic sanctions that would bring worse conditions for North Korea's population and greater desperation. Renewal of the 1994 accord and continued humanitarian assistance should be coupled with unconditional inspections to assure North Korea's disarmament of nuclear and any other weapons of mass destruction.

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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, Publisher

Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com

Mary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4790; mpoole@starbulletin.com
John Flanagan, Contributing Editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com

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