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U.S. Official Says Nuclear Proliferation Top Security Threat

02 August 2006

Nonproliferation office nominee discusses North Korea, Iran at Senate hearing

Washington -- The greatest security threat facing the United States today is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, says the nominee selected to head the State Department’s nonproliferation bureau.

In his prepared statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee August 2, John Rood said nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons "could enable our adversaries to inflict massive harm on the United States, our forces, and our friends and allies."  That is why, he said, reducing and preventing proliferation threats are critically important.

Rood has been nominated to become assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.  Currently, he serves as a special assistant to the president and senior director for counter-proliferation strategy at the National Security Council, where he brings together representatives from U.S. government agencies responsible for formulating and coordinating nonproliferation policies.

A former CIA analyst, Rood spent several years following the missile programs of countries such as India, North Korea and Pakistan.  If confirmed, he told the Senate committee, he expected to lead the State Department bureau through "what promise to be challenging years."

Rood said the recent missile launches by North Korea "highlight the danger posed" by that regime.  The creation and sustainment of Six-Party Talks involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States was the administration's vehicle to counter the North Korean threat, he said.

Even though Pyongyang agreed in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear weapons and programs, it has not followed through nor returned to the talks.  In light of that, Rood said, the United States has taken "defensive measures" to protect itself and its allies from North Korea's "proliferation behavior and other illicit activities."  He also mentioned the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1695 in July, which demands that North Korea suspend its ballistic missile activities and requires U.N. members to prevent the transfer of goods or technology to North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, he said.  (See related article.)

Iran is another example of U.S. multilateral nonproliferation diplomacy, Rood said.  Iran has been given a choice of two paths regarding its clandestine nuclear weapons program.  The negative choice, he said, is to continue with its weapons program and face "further international isolation and progressively stronger political and economic sanctions."

In contrast, the positive and constructive choice is for Iran to change course.  If it does, said Rood, the United States will join Britain, France and Germany in meeting Iran's representatives.

The latest U.N. Security Council Resolution, No. 1696, gives Iran the month of August to suspend uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing and return to negotiations, or face further Security Council action, including sanctions, Rood said.  (See related article.)

Read the full text of Rood’s prepared statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rood's biography is available on USINFO.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)