• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

18 June 2003

U.S. Reviving North Korea Nuclear Issue in Security Council

(Negroponte: U.S. discussing possibility of statement by council
president) (450)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The United States has begun talks with other members
of the Security Council in an effort to get the council to issue a
statement urging North Korea to honor its nuclear nonproliferation
obligations, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said June 18.
Negroponte, the chief U.S. representative to the United Nations, said
that the U.S. delegation is "reviving the idea of a [Security Council]
presidential statement on North Korea." Such a statement is issued
during a formal Security Council meeting by the council president on
behalf of all members. All 15 members must agree on the contents.
The main message of the proposed council president's statement, the
ambassador told journalists outside the Security Council's chambers,
would be to "call on North Korea to rejoin the international
community" on the issue of nuclear nonproliferation.
The proposed statement would say in effect "that North Korea is out of
compliance with its international obligations with respect to
nonproliferation and call on North Korea to rejoin the international
community in this area, place its facilities under the safeguards, and
cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and with its
obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty [NPT],"
Negroponte said.
The crisis over North Korea's nuclear program was first referred to
the Security Council in February 2003 by the Board of Governors of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after IAEA efforts to get
North Korea to come into compliance with the NPT and allow IAEA
inspectors back into the country proved ineffective.
In December 2002 Pyongyang expelled IAEA inspectors and cut seals and
blocked surveillance cameras IAEA had placed in North Korean nuclear
facilities. In January the IAEA board adopted a resolution declaring
North Korea's actions to be contrary to its safeguards agreement and
calling on Pyongyang to work with the IAEA. North Korea declared the
resolution unjust and announced it was withdrawing from the NPT. Its
withdrawal was effective April 10.
In April the Security Council was unable to agree on any kind of a
presidential statement after meetings among the five permanent members
-- China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States -- as
well as among the 15-member council as a whole. Diplomatic contacts
were taking place in the region and the U.N. had sent a special envoy
to the region to encourage talks.
Negroponte said at that time that the U.S. was not ruling out further
council consultations on the issue although there was no particular
timetable for returning to the council.
North Korea has said that it would consider a Security Council
condemnation a prelude to war.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)