North Korea Warns U.N.

North Korea Warns U.N.

Stewart Stogel, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, July 1, 2003

UNITED NATIONS – North Korea has warned the U.N. Security Council against being pressured by Washington to react on the nuclear crisis.

An unofficial English translation of the warning was obtained by NewsMax from North Korean diplomats in New York City.

For the last two weeks, the Bush administration has tried to pressure the council to take up the matter.

All the U.S. efforts have been blocked by China, one of the permanent five members with veto power.

In April, Pyongyang became the first nation ever to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

Legally, any nation can withdraw from the nuclear treaty in the interests of "national security."

North Korea claimed its national "interests" became threatened when Washington voided the 1994 Agreed Framework last year.

That agreement was to provide Pyongyang with fuel oil and two new nuclear power plants in return for the freezing of its "nuclear research" program.

The White House voided the nuclear agreement when the DPRK revealed it had been engaged in atomic research since 1998. The U.S. said such research voided the 1994 agreement. North Korea disagreed.

Since then, Pyongyang says it not only reactivated its dormant Soviet designed nuclear reactor, but has also begun reprocessing spent fuel, which had been kept in storage.

Both steps are crucial in the production of atomic bombs. The CIA estimates the DPRK could process enough nuclear fuel to make as many as 10 bombs within a year.

In April, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog, referred the North Korean crisis to the Security Council.

To date, any effort by Washington to get the council to respond has been blunted by Beijing.

Chinese diplomats at the U.N. refuse to explain their government's actions.

Washington had been attempting to get the council to issue a "presidential statement" on the crisis. Though not legally binding, such a statement could open the door to official punitive action at a future date.

Diplomats at the United States' U.N. mission tell NewsMax that Beijing has yet to even talk on the crisis. The Chinese decision in essence has frozen any moves by Washington.

Last Friday, the North Koreans jumped into the fray directly by sending a warning to council president Sergey Lavrov of Russia.

The letter, from Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun, contains a rambling list of grievances against Washington.

It says that the White House's policy of "containment" is pushing the Korean peninsula "back to a warring situation."

Pyongyang explains that it wants "bilateral" talks with Washington to resolve the crisis, a move the U.S. has repeatedly rejected. The Bush administration believes the crisis has a regional dimension and, as such, needs to be addressed multilaterally.

The North Koreans also insist that their withdrawal (from the NPT) was legal. They point out that several nations, such as Israel, have much larger atomic arsenals and never signed the nuclear treaty.

Pyongyang warns the council against employing a "double standard."

The letter also complains that Japan, under pressure from Washington, has already begun to prepare an air and sea embargo of North Korea.

Such an embargo, it claims, is based on faulty and biased U.S. intelligence. It refers to U.S. problems with Iraq as an example of how Washington "abuses" the compilation of such material.

Foreign Minister Paek also points out that the U.N. is now at a "crossroads." He warns the organization against being led "by an individual country" to establish "a dangerous world order."

Rick Grinell, a spokesman for U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte, refused comment on North Korea's warning.

Grinell explained that the U.N. would officially translate the letter and send it the full Security Council early this week. He insisted that the North Korean warning will not stop Washington's efforts to bring the crisis to the council floor.

Privately, the State Department tells NewsMax that the White House has yet to decide how to handle the North Korean warning and China's moves to stall any U.N. action.