Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=05/19/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=DEALING WITH NORTH KOREA

NUMBER=6-12934

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: With the end of the war in Iraq, U-S papers are taking a new look at another threat: North Korea. The "Hermit Kingdom" may possess nuclear weapons and is developing, an untested, long-range rocket. That makes its neighbors, as well as the United States nervous, but the press agrees, dealing with Pyongyang is not easy. We get a sampling of editorials from V-O-A's _____________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: North Korea is one of the most closed societies in the world, and figuring out what goes on in the minds of its leaders is very difficult. The nation recently began aggressively restarting various nuclear facilities, which can produce bomb-making material. Further complicating the situation is the on-going famine that is estimated to have killed at least two-million North Koreans during the past decade.

The renewed nuclear activity has gotten Washington's attention, and talks aimed at curbing it have begun. After weeks of refusing to include its neighbors, Pyongyang relented and now China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea will be involved... But no one is predicting finding solutions will be easy. We begin in Pennsylvania, where Allentown's Morning Call comments:

VOICE: Growling stomachs and emaciated faces form the backdrop of the current nuclear-weapons standoff between North Korea, its neighbors and the United States. The longer dictator Kim Jong Il stubbornly pursues his nuclear ambitions, the more he jeopardizes the lives of millions of his countrymen. This, in a place where as many as two-million North Koreans died in the mid-1990s during what the Wall Street Journal described . as "one of modern history's worst famines."

Pyongyang's policies put the United States in a tight spot, not wanting to jeopardize more lives, yet not wanting to placate a man who has put the survival of his million-man army above that of the rest of his nation's [starving] population. . North Korea may ultimately present the Bush administration with its greatest foreign relations challenge yet.

TEXT: Excerpts from an editorial in Allentown's Morning Call. The New York Times agrees it is very difficult to deal with North Korea, but suggests the Bush administration needs to come up with a workable policy sooner, rather than later.

VOICE: When historians look back at the presidency of George Bush, they may well wonder why the United States devoted so much more attention to Iraq than North Korea. Oil is one answer - Iraq has it, North Korea does not - but in terms of American security, North Korea's nuclear weapons loom as a much greater danger than Saddam Hussein's as-yet-undiscovered stocks of chemical and biological arms. The Bush administration has yet to come up with a workable plan to deal with North Korea.

TEXT: In Florida, Tampa's Tribune suggests that in the aftermath of the speedy and efficient victory over Iraq, the world has changed and the relationship between this nation and the Korean peninsula with it.

VOICE: North Korea is cruel and unpredictable, which is why for 50 years U-S troops have camped just over the border in South Korea to discourage any ideas of invasion. It has been a useful deployment . but the world has changed even is North Korea has not. It is now possible, even advisable, to bring our 37-thousand troops home.

. South Korea too has changed over the years. . thanks to . the blessings of free enterprise, it has an economy 40-times the size of North Korea's. It is capable of defending itself.

TEXT: Views of The Tampa Tribune. An upset [New London, Connecticut] Day points out that a nationwide famine, a huge army, and a resurgent nuclear weapons program are not the only evils emanating from Pyongyang.

VOICE: Australian authorities have turned up fresh evidence that the North Korean government operates a crime syndicate that smuggles drugs and counterfeit money around the world to keep the regime of Kim Jong Il in business. . The U-S and other countries long have suspected that North Korea has engaged in criminal activities. . [However] This is not the sort of activity that easily succumbs to international law or diplomacy. In fact, North Korea's bizarre conduct . raises serious questions over how to deal with a more serious matter, the country's proclaimed nuclear weapons program.

TEXT: On that unsettling note from Eastern Connecticut's [New London] Day, we conclude this editorial sampling on the problems of dealing with North Korea.

NEB/ANG/RAE