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View Full Version : 'One way or another' N.Korea to lose nukes - U.S.


aricbcool
06-14-2005, 22:58
Not exactly breaking news, but I like the sound of it...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061400980_pf.html

'One way or another' N.Korea to lose nukes - U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration, under fire for what critics call its failed North Korea policy, expressed confidence on Tuesday that "one way or another" Pyongyang ultimately would give up its nuclear weapons.

"One way or another they're not going to have these systems," said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. diplomat dealing with Pyongyang.

"And so the real issue for them is what are the terms under which they'll give them up," he added.

Hill's two-hour appearance before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations panel kept the focus on unsuccessful U.S. diplomatic efforts to revive six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear program, which Pyongyang has boycotted for one year.

But he reiterated the U.S. position that other options remain under discussion and added a dose of reality to recent optimism that Pyongyang may soon come back to the table.

"North Korea's unwillingness to return to the table casts increasing doubts on how serious it really is about ending its decades-old nuclear ambitions," he said.

Hill said Pyongyang seems to be "testing our mettle ... testing to see whether we're going to get into endless arguments with our partners. They're waiting to see whether we're going to start negotiating with each other and with ourselves to sweeten the pot for them. And so they feel there's some advantage in waiting."

Leading opposition, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said U.S. policy was a failure.

The North bore prime responsibility for the nuclear crisis, he said, but "this administration has also made a series of poor choices, in my view, and has not ... pursued the policies that stand a realistic chance of mitigating and ultimately reversing North Korea's threat."

On President Bush's watch the North "declared itself a nuclear power, produced enough plutonium to build at least six or eight nuclear weapons, and made vague threats about testing and on the verge of testing a weapon," undermining non-proliferation efforts and confidence in America's ability to ensure peace in Asia, Biden added.

Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana, the panel's chairman, expressed concern that U.S. goals were being sabotaged by internal administration divisions over policy, confusing both Pyongyang and U.S. allies.

Hill disagreed that a year-long impasse in six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear ambitions should prompt change in the U.S. negotiating proposal, unveiled during the last six-party round in June 2004.

"This is a time when we have to be a little stubborn on this," he said.

Hill repeated administration complaints that China had not exerted enough pressure on Pyongyang to bring it back into negotiations but said he was confident U.S. ally South Korea had made clear its economic and political cooperation would be "minimal" until the North resumed the talks.

With U.S. frustration building over the nuclear stalemate, a senior Pentagon official last week suggested the administration would soon decide whether to escalate pressure on Pyongyang and take the case to the U.N. Security Council.

Hill said the United States reserves the right to do so in the future "but it is not something we're planning to do now."

He said the administration was considering other options for dealing with the nuclear crisis but did not give details.