Once Is Definitely Not Enough : N. Korea’s OK on a single nuclear inspection is welcome but inadequate

With its abrupt agreement to open seven of its nuclear sites to international inspection North Korea has forestalled a looming crisis, while leaving unresolved the basic international security problems posed by its secret effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

After delaying for a year in meeting its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, the Pyongyang regime, facing probable U.N. Security Council-ordered economic sanctions within a few weeks, has taken a minimum step to satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency. But apparently IAEA inspectors will be granted only one visit. Moreover, and fundamentally, they won’t be able to see two suspected dumps where wastes from weapons-grade plutonium may be stored. Examination of those sites could reveal the extent of Pyongyang’s weapons program.

U.S. officials believe that the north may already have material for one or two nuclear devices. Recent remarks by Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Secretary of State Warren Christopher suggest that Washington’s aim now is not to force North Korea to give up that material but only to prevent it from acquiring more. One or two crude devices may not a nuclear power make, but one or two such devices, flaunted or not, can give implicit heft to a program of political blackmail against neighboring countries, South Korea especially.

The threat of sanctions was the stick used to force North Korea to live up to the Non-proliferation Treaty’s inspection requirements. The carrot was a U.S. offer to upgrade political and economic relations with Kim Il Sung’s tottering Stalinist regime, in exchange for Pyongyang’s agreement to end its nuclear program. Verification, by inspections, must be a part of this agreement.

Is North Korea, diplomatically isolated and with its economy stagnating under four years of negative growth, finally ready for such a deal? Given its track record, the odds have to be seen as less than even. Pyongyang has acted to avoid international censure. But it still has to show that it’s ready for international respectability.