U.S. to Seek Sanctions if N. Korea Stalls

The Clinton Administration has decided to seek some form of international economic sanctions against North Korea if Pyongyang continues to flout international nuclear weapons inspectors, and the United States will soon begin sounding out its allies about possible action, officials said Wednesday.

The effort would be launched only if the U.N.-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency, which is conducting the inspections, formally declares that Pyongyang’s rebuffs have destroyed inspectors’ ability to determine if North Korea has diverted fuel to make nuclear weapons.

The Vienna-based agency is expected to issue its report late this week or early next, but U.S. officials said they are assuming it will declare North Korea out of compliance unless Pyongyang reverses itself soon.

North Korea issued another statement Wednesday saying it will not allow inspectors the access they want. But U.S. officials said privately that they believe that Pyongyang is still considering the international agency’s demands.

“The ball is in their court,” one strategist here said.

The consensus on the U.S. approach was achieved by top Administration national security policy-makers before President Clinton left for Europe, where he is scheduled to take part in a commemoration by the Allies of the 50th anniversary of D-day.

Although Clinton left Washington on Wednesday morning, Administration officials continued to discuss the issue late into the afternoon. The President is expected to receive periodic briefings.

Officials said initial U.S. soundings of allies are likely to begin Friday, when Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci is scheduled to meet here with envoys from South Korea and Japan.

U.S. officials said the central questions are how the sanctions should be structured and how tough they can be and still win approval of the U.N. Security Council. Washington may have to settle for a gradual imposition of sanctions, particularly as China has opposed punishing North Korea formally. U.S. officials said they are still unsure how Beijing would vote on the issue.

The State Department, while rejecting Pyongyang’s statement as unacceptable, continued to hold out hope publicly that North Korea would agree to comply with the atomic energy agency’s demands.

“There is no IAEA conclusion yet that North Korea has crossed the line of no return,” Christine Shelly, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, told reporters Wednesday. She said North Korea still has a chance to change its mind.

At the same time, Vice President Al Gore told reporters that the Administration “will not flinch” in its showdown with the North.

“We’re not rattling sabers--we’re just saying the same thing that American administrations have been saying since the 1950s,” he said.

Administration officials said they are still puzzled over North Korea’s intentions--whether it is trying to cover up a nuclear weapons program or merely playing a cat-and-mouse game in hopes of prodding the West into offering more economic incentives.

U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea may well have developed one or two nuclear bombs by reprocessing spent fuel rods after it shut down its reactor at Yongbyon briefly in 1989. But they are uncertain any weapons have been manufactured.

North Korea had agreed to allow international inspectors to monitor the Yongbyon reactor earlier this year but later barred them from entry.

David Hannay, Britain’s U.N. ambassador, told reporters that although “there is no smoking gun” at Yongbyon, “there is circumstantial evidence that points in one direction--and that is not a direction that makes the Security Council comfortable.”

Whether the council is asked to vote on sanctions, he said, “depends on the North Koreans. They have a choice.”