[USFK Forums] US hardliners grab N Korea policy reigns [FT]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, December 20, 2005]

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US hardliners grab N Korea policy reins

By Guy Dinmore in Washington and Anna Fifield in Seoul
Published: December 19 2005 19:56

Financial Times
Last updated: December 20 2005 01:05

Hardliners in the Bush administration appear to be winning an internal struggle for control over policy towards North Korea, shifting the focus to containing the communist regime and crippling its “illicit sources of finance” at the expense of diplomatic negotiations over its nuclear programme.

US officials and analysts said Chris Hill, the State Department’s chief negotiator in six-nation talks, risks being marginalised in a policy battle that has characterised divisions within Washington since President George Bush took office in 2001.

We cannot stand still and not take appropriate measures,” Mr Hill told the Financial Times on Monday night. He noted that North Korea had signed the agreement in principle to end its nuclear programme at the talks hosted by China in September, and questioned the use of continuing to run the Yongbyon reactor.

Asked if the US was tightening the noose on North Korea, Mr Hill told the FT: To say the US is tightening the noose is to blame the victim.

He declined to discuss what he called “Washington politics”. US efforts to interdict North Korean shipments of illicit materials and weapons are focused on Washington’s Proliferation Security Initiative which seeks the co-operation of key states.

Central Asian governments have been urged to join. Analysts say, however, that as far as they know not a single North Korean weapons shipment has been blocked.

Analysts close to the administration said that although Mr Hill’s mandate may not have changed, his efforts risked being undermined if North Korea responded to the increased pressure by refusing to attend further talks, as it has threatened.

Hardline conservatives, led by Dick Cheney, the vice president, and Robert Joseph, under-secretary for arms control, did not believe in the use of negotiations, the analysts said.

A senior US official said the Bush administration was still waiting to hear from hosts China whether North Korea would attend the next round, tentatively scheduled for January 10.

The official said North Korea’s protests - over actions taken against Banco Delta Asia, a Macao-based bank used by Pyongyang, and some of its state-run companies allegedly linked to weapons proliferation - were a smokescreen for its reluctance to take the fundamental decision to eliminate its nuclear programme.