Clinton Urged to Accept N. Korean Inspection Offer

The State Department is urging President Clinton to accept a North Korean offer to allow new international inspections of some of its nuclear-related facilities in exchange for the cancellation of an annual U.S. military exercise in South Korea, according to U.S. officials.

The aim of the proposed agreement is to end a crisis caused by North Korea’s refusal to let inspectors visit facilities at which North Korean scientists could conduct nuclear bomb-related work, the officials said. Under the deal, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency would revisit various sites at the country’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, which they have been barred from visiting since last spring.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Department are strongly opposed to the deal, however, because it would not include any promise by North Korea to allow future IAEA access to two sites suspected of harboring nuclear wastes from past bomb-related work.

Officials said the interagency dispute is to be aired this afternoon at a meeting at the White House involving Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Defense Secretary Les Aspin, White House National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and other top policy-makers.

The aim is “to have senior levels . . . step back and look at where we are (with North Korea) and how we . . . proceed from here,” an official said Sunday on condition that he not be identified.

U.S. officials said the matter must be decided soon because of growing anxiety over North Korea’s refusal to allow inspections of seals placed on sensitive nuclear-related equipment and replenishment of film and batteries in surveillance cameras at the complex.

IAEA Director Hans Blix said in a speech Nov. 1 that the lack of access had damaged his ability to verify the absence of any new work by North Korea on nuclear weapons.

The State Department’s enthusiasm for the proposed deal partly stems from a public statement Thursday by the North Korean first vice minister for foreign affairs, Kang Sok Chu, outlining his country’s commitment to inspections of some nuclear facilities if “the United States takes a practical action of renouncing the nuclear threat against us.”

A senior U.S. official said Kang was referring to a demand that Washington cancel the military exercise, which last spring involved 126,000 U.S. and Korean troops and was portrayed by the North Korean leadership as a prelude to war.

This year’s joint exercise, which began today, is scheduled to last about 10 days. Most of the 36,000 U.S. troops in South Korea and 650,000 South Korean troops are participating, military officials of both sides told the Associated Press.

Kang’s statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency and monitored in Tokyo, urged U.S. adoption of the “package solution” put forth by his government, promising that such a move would open the door to “settlement of the nuclear problem.”