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Published on April 29, 2008

The Nation

Hard-liners in the US Congress are stamping their feet, while the Japanese government is pounding its fist on the table. The UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is screaming foul while Pyongyang is lost for words, as always.

US chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill, in spite of the face-saving statement from the White House, is trying hard to dispel a growing fear that the six-party talks are at stake.

He suggested that what was past should remain in the past and the six-party talks over the nuclear stand-off in the Korean Peninsula will not be derailed.

It all started, figuratively speaking, last September when Israeli jets bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that was supposedly built with the help of North Korea.

The US has information about it and kept it to themselves for seven months. It was not until recently (April 25) that the Bush Administration broke its silence that it had knowledge about the Syrian nuclear reactor secretly built by North Korea.

While the US was certain that Pyongyang had aided Syria with the nuclear programme, they were not as confident that it was meant for weapons development.

According to the briefings, there was no reprocessing facility at the site, which would be needed to enrich nuclear material for use in making a bomb.

But in a strongly worded statement last Thursday, the White House said Pyongyang's work on the nuclear reactor with Syria was "dangerous" and that it was a "potentially destabilising development for the world". The White House also raised doubts about Pyongyang's intention to comply with a promised disclosure of its nuclear activities. But such a line was expected, considering the track record of the reclusive Stalinist state. The resulting huffing-and-puffing from Tokyo and the UN atomic watchdog were not a surprise. Japan has always opposed US offers to take North Korea off a list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for progress in the six-nation deal.

IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei has every right to be upset at both the US and Israel for tap-dancing on the agency's mandate. "Under the NPT [non-proliferation treaty], the agency has a responsibility to verify any proliferation allegations in a non-nuclear weapon state party to the NPT and to report its findings to the IAEA board of governors and the Security Council, as required."

And it continued: "In light of the above, the director-general views the unilateral military action by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime." But while all parties are jumping up and down, perhaps a little perspective is needed here. Israel should have, at the least, given IAEA inspectors a crack at it before it sent off its jet fighters to the site.

Pyongyang's willingness to provide nuclear technology to Syria is extremely worrisome, indeed. But allowing this development in the Middle East to affect the six-nation talks should be avoided as it would push North Korea towards rogue states shopping for nuclear technology and related know-how. North Korea can't go on employing bombs and other scare tactics to get the US, South Korea and Japan to dance to its tune.

Development in the Korean Peninsula is important for Southeast Asia, indeed. Pyongyang was invited to take part in the Asean Regional Forum in 2002, the year when Thailand chaired the regional grouping.  But if Pyongyang wants to be seen as a responsible player, it will have to do much, much more than what it has been doing. As for Washington and other key players in the global arena, North Korea can start by coming forward with a declaration of all of its nuclear activities as it promised to do. The declaration is nearly four months overdue. If Pyongyang wishes to be taken seriously and respected, it is going to have to deliver on its promises.