U.N. Security Council Takes Up North Korea Nuclear Issue
(U.S. looks forward to working with council) (720)
By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Writer
United Nations -- The Security Council began working on a new nuclear
weapons issue February 19 -- North Korea's nuclear program, as
referred to it by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Security Council received a letter on the subject from the IAEA
"and referred it to experts for further consultation and decided to
remain seized with the matter," said Council President Ambassador
Gunter Pleuger of Germany.
"As it is an important and very complicated issue the council wanted
to refer this to the expert consultations first before discussing this
in the council itself," Pleuger said after a brief private council
session. Legal experts from the nations on the council "will study
this report and draw their substantial and legal conclusions and make
recommendations. ... On that basis, the council will take the matter
up."
The president said he had no indication how long the experts might
take in drawing up recommendations for the 15-nation council.
On February 12, IAEA's governing board voted overwhelming to send the
North Korean issue to the Security Council.
Declaring that North Korea is in further noncompliance with its
obligations under its safeguards agreement with IAEA and its
obligations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the
board decided to report the issue to the Security Council and the
General Assembly of the United Nations. In parallel, the board
stressed its "desire for a peaceful resolution of the DPRK [Democratic
People's Republic of Korea] nuclear issue and its support for
diplomatic means to that end."
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. However, IAEA's director
said that all his "repeated efforts in so many different ways to
engage the DPRK went in vain." North Korea said the IAEA resolution
was unjust and announced it was withdrawing from the NPT.
At a press conference after the vote, IAEA Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei said that the board wanted to use the Security Council and
all the options available to it to find a diplomatic solution.
"A report to the Security Council does not mean anything other than
using the Security Council as a focal point for a diplomatic
solution," ElBaradei said.
The Security Council has the power to impose mandatory economic and
military sanctions and, if all else fails, authorize the use of force.
"It is not the intention to jump to sanctions right now. That is not
the message coming from the board here," ElBaradei said. "...
Everybody is saying it is not the time to use enforcement measures.
Let us first try to find a diplomatic solution."
U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said that the United States "welcomes
the decision by the IAEA board of governors to refer North Korea's
lack of compliance to the Security Council."
"This is a matter of concern to the entire international community. We
look forward to working with our colleagues on the council on finding
a way to achieve a verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North
Korea's nuclear program and we'll be continuing this discussion in the
coming days as our experts look at the IAEA letter," Cunningham said.
"We feel very strongly this is an issue of concern to the entire
international community, not just for the region, let alone
bilaterally. This is a problem of proliferation and this kind of
violation we should all be concerned about," the ambassador said.
Cunningham said that the North Korean and Iraqi situations are not
comparable at this point. The council is in the final stages of
dealing with Iraq while the problem with North Korea is at "the very
beginning of the process."
North Korea "is at a different stage, the situation is different. We
want to find a solution to this problem. The easiest way, obviously,
is if North Korea were to reverse course ... but I am not going to
speculate on how the council can be most useful at this point," the
U.S. ambassador said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
