U.S. Accuses N. Korea of Weapons Violations

The Bush administration’s top arms control negotiator today accused North Korea of ignoring repeated warnings about its weapons programs and hinted that the United States could reconsider a 1994 agreement under which the U.S. and other countries are supposed to build light-water nuclear reactors for Pyongyang.

“The global consequences of its proliferation are impossible to ignore,” warned Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, delivering one of the administration’s toughest speeches to date on the recalcitrant North Korean regime.

In a methodical, prosecutorial style, Bolton read off a litany of charges against the North Koreans. “North Korea is the world’s foremost peddler of ballistic missile-related equipment,” he charged, listing clients that include so-called rogue regimes such as Iran, Syria and Libya.

“North Korea has one of the most robust offensive bioweapons programs on Earth,” Bolton continued. With regard to chemical weapons, he cited South Korean Defense Ministry estimates that North Korea has at least 2,500 tons of lethal chemicals and is “exerting its utmost efforts” to produce more.

The allegations were drawn largely from two declassified CIA reports submitted to Congress this year. However, the tone and timing of the speech suggested a hardening of the Bush administration’s views.

Bolton repeated assurances by President Bush that the United States has no plans to attack North Korea.

But his speech cast grave doubts on whether the administration will continue to support the agreement to build reactors to ease North Korea’s energy shortage in exchange for Pyongyang’s suspension of its nuclear weapons program. The nuclear components cannot be delivered until North Korea allows international weapons inspectors to certify that it is complying with the treaty--something that it has so far refused to do.

“Continued intransigence on the part of Pyongyang only begs the question: What is North Korea hiding?” Bolton said.

He said if North Korea fails to allow inspections promptly, “the future of the ‘agreed framework,’ ” as the 1994 treaty is known, “will be in serious doubt.”

Bush this year refused to certify to Congress that North Korea is in compliance with all treaty provisions. Last week, the administration announced sanctions against a North Korean manufacturer for selling missile parts to Yemen.

Bolton, well known for his hawkish views, comes to Seoul at a politically and diplomatically sensitive time. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, in his final months in office, is anxious to wring out of the North Koreans more tangible gains from his “sunshine policy” of engagement with the North that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000. This week, economic officials from Pyongyang are visiting Seoul to talk about plans for a railroad reconnecting the two Koreas.

Bolton’s speech, delivered to an audience of foreign and South Korean diplomats, academics and business leaders, appeared to draw some fire from supporters of Kim.

Kim Yoon Kyu, chief executive officer of Hyundai Asan, challenged Bolton on whether the Bush administration supports economic projects between the Koreas.

“We only wish the North Koreans would spend more money on economic development and less on weapons of mass destruction,” Bolton said.