Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 29 August 24 - 30, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
U.S.
to Send Signal to North Koreans in Naval Exercise By
Steven R. Weisman
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Administration
officials and Asian diplomats said that the exercise would be carried out in the
Coral Sea off northeastern Australia in September and that it was officially
described as directed at no one country. A principal intention, however, was to
send a sharp signal to North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program,
they said. The next round of
talks with North Korea is planned for Aug. 27 in Beijing, with six nations
taking part. The United States has been working with its allies to decide which
items to present, from economic benefits to security guarantees, that would be
provided if the North Korean government agreed to shut down its program
verifiably and irreversibly. At the same time,
the United States has stepped up efforts with Japan, South Korea and nine other
nations to interdict ships doing business with North Korea. Last December,
Spanish warships stopped a North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles to Yemen,
but released it after Yemen protested "We are not
saying which countries are being targeted, because it would not be politically
wise," said an Asian diplomat, referring to the September naval exercise.
"But the American government believes that one of the reasons why North
Korea has agreed to the six-party talks in Beijing is that they are feeling the
pinch." An American official
said the Coral Sea exercise would consist in part of ships and helicopters
practicing the "nonpermissive boarding" of ships suspected of carrying
drugs, missile components, nuclear materials and other items that the United
States says are being imported or sold by North Korea. Some diplomats are
known to worry that exercises like the one in the Coral Sea might be seen as
provocative by the government of Kim Jong Il in North Korea, and perhaps by
China and Russia, which oppose confrontational tactics toward North Korea. But administration
officials said it was essential for the United States to have a more aggressive
policy aimed at preventing North Korea from obtaining materials for its nuclear
program or from selling missile parts, drugs or other contraband to get hard
currency to pay for its weapons. The Coral Sea naval
exercise "has not surfaced as much of a factor" in negotiations with
North Korea, an administration official said, adding: "If laws are broken
or our national security is threatened, then everyone should recognize that we
need to take that seriously. We are taking these steps to protect our own
societies." A Pentagon official
said planning for the Coral Sea exercise had not been completed. It was not
clear which countries, beyond Australia and the United States, would take part
with ships. Japan was said to be ready to send a ship if the event could be
formally characterized as a "police exercise" and not a military
exercise. The Japanese Constitution limits its military to self-defense. The exercises are
part of a program announced by President Bush and leaders of other countries at
a meeting in Krakow, Poland, at the end of May known as the Proliferation
Security Initiative, with 11 nations participating: the United States, Britain,
Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and
Spain. The Coral Sea naval
exercise is to be the Initiative's first such action, and its participants set
plans for it in July at a meeting in Brisbane, Australia. Under a separate
program, known as the D.P.R.K. Illicit Activities Initiative, referring to the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name, there has
been a quiet crackdown by many nations against the North's narcotics trade,
counterfeiting, money laundering and other efforts to earn hard currency. Among the recent
actions under this initiative was the seizure of a North Korean freighter by the
Australian authorities in April off Brisbane on suspicion of smuggling heroin
and Japanese efforts to shut down a large trading company involved in illicit
trade with North Korea. Organized crime syndicates in Japan have long been
believed to be involved in sending remittances to North Korea, money that in
many cases generated at pinball casinos that are popular in Japan. In addition, in
early August, the Taiwan authorities boarded a North Korean freighter on a
technical customs violation and then found and seized barrels of phosphorus
pentasulfide, a lethal material that the United States later said could be used
to make chemical weapons. The Coral Sea naval
exercise is to be the Proliferation Security Initiative's first such action, and
its participants set plans for it only last month at a meeting in Brisbane. An administration
official said the interdiction exercise would "piggyback" on top of
another long-planned naval exercise. But a Pentagon official said that exercise
would run concurrently but not as part of the interdiction exercise, which he
described as in its "embryonic stages," with a scope that remains
undetermined. The Bush
administration's efforts to squeeze North Korea by applying
"interdiction" and "seizure" techniques were outlined in a
statement by the United States and its allies at the Krakow meeting. This
summer, John R. Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control and
international security, testified in Congress that the goal was to develop
"new means to disrupt the proliferation trade at sea, in the air, and on
land." Mr. Bolton is one of the program's champions. A meeting has been
scheduled in Paris in September, after the Coral Sea exercise, to draft criteria
for future interdiction efforts. "We're going to
try to reach agreement in Paris on rules of the road," an administration
official said, adding that "the parties need to determine what their
obligations will be in the interdiction and seizure" of weapons of mass
destruction. Some officials
involved in the project concede that in some cases, such as the shipment of
weapons that were bought or sold legally, the initiative could be hampered by
international laws barring the interdiction of ships on the high seas. After
authorizing the stopping of the Yemen-bound Scud missiles in December, the
United States found no legal basis for blocking the shipment. But officials
familiar with the Coral Sea exercise said this problem could be circumvented in
part if a new round of sanctions are imposed on North Korea, and also Iran,
because of their refusal to cooperate on the nuclear issue. The sanctions might
be used to justify future interdictions, the officials said. The interdictions
could also be carried out because of suspicion of a violation, they said, and
then the searches could be conducted for illicit materials. An analogy, an
official said, would be stopping a car for speeding when the real reason for the
stop was to search for drugs. The administration
speeded up its efforts against North Korea after October, when the North
admitted to a top American envoy that it had secretly embarked on a program to
produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, in violation of its 1994
agreement not to pursue such arms. The admission sent
American policy makers into a long debate about whether to try to engage with
North Korea or squeeze it economically, politically and ultimately militarily. In the end, in an
administration often riven between hard-liners and those favoring negotiations,
it was decided to take both approaches: pressure and negotiation. August
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