Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=JANUARY 7, 2002

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=PETER PELLA/NORTH KOREA

NUMBER=3-479

BYLINE=TOM CROSBY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

/// Editors: This interview is available in Dalet under SOD/English News Now Interviews in the folder for today or yesterday ///

INTRO: The United States says it is willing to talk with North Korea. But Washington is not willing to make any concessions to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program. Peter Pella says this willingness to talk is a welcome development. He at one time served on the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and he spoke with VOA's Tom Crosby about the U-S-North Korean confrontation:

MR. PELLA: I'm glad they are saying they're going to talk with North Korea, but a lot of the damage was already done by not following up with what the situation was when the Clinton administration left office. There was a chance for some further work with North Korea that may have helped diffuse the situation.

MR. CROSBY: What could have been done at that time?

MR. PELLA: I think the Bush administration said early on that they didn't like the 1994 Agreed Framework. They were slow in fulfilling their requirements for heating oil that was part of that agreement. They also ended up labeling North Korea one of the axes of evil. And I think the combination of those things probably made North Korea doubt the sincerity of the United States. And then when these reactors that they were going to build got held up quite a bit, I think North Korea decided that it was in their best interest to try to see if they could either speed up that process or get more out of the Agreed Framework.

MR. CROSBY: There are those, of course, who do say that perhaps North Korea's intent in announcing the resumption of its nuclear arms program was to get a bit more aid out of the United States. That sounds like a rather drastic step, though, doesn't it?

MR. PELLA: They have done that before. If you remember, just before the 1994 Agreed Framework, North Korea was talking about moving troops close to the border. And they said, if the IAEA found them in violation at that time, they would consider that an act of war, just like they're saying now. So, they have resorted to this in the past.

MR. CROSBY: You, of course, served in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. North Korea asked the IAEA monitors to leave the country. How do you react to that, as one who was very close to arms control and arms monitoring?

MR. PELLA: That is a pretty serious move, because they have a number of fuel rods that are sitting in storage right now that have enough plutonium in them to make at least four or five nuclear weapons, depending on the sophistication. And they probably have already been able to reprocess plutonium. So, it wouldn't be that much of a problem to start that program up within about six months. And not having inspectors there, it would be very easy for them to start moving those fuel rods and getting ready for that reprocessing.

MR. CROSBY: What recourse do the International Atomic Energy Agency monitors have?

MR. PELLA: The only thing they can do -- they really have no enforcement mechanism -- they go back to the IAEA and say, we found these discrepancies. Or the IAEA decides that North Korea is in violation of their Non-Proliferation Treaty agreements, and then they go before the Security Council of the United Nations and it's up to them to take some action. And of course, the only action they could do is economic boycotts.

MR. CROSBY: And indeed, we have the Bush administration saying in the past 24 hours, there will be no military action taken in this case, so that option is off the table, isn't it?

MR. PELLA: Right. Even though, it's interesting, that seemed to be -- although I wasn't aware of it at the time -- that was one of the options being considered by the Clinton administration before the 1994 accords. But that is one of the things North Korea is asking for and, as far as the U.S. is concerned, that is not part of the old 1994 Agreed Framework. So, by agreeing to North Korea's request that we not attack them and sort of grant their security in some way, is not really caving in to what other things North Korea is doing. So, it might be a way for North Korea to say, okay, now it's time for us to take a step.

OUTRO: Peter Pella served on the U-S Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Clinton administration. He is now a physics professor at Gettysburg College in the state of Pennsylvania.

VNN/TC/RCS