NUCLEAR ARMS : U.S. Hopes Swiss Talks Will Bare N. Korea’s Intent

Over the next week in this tranquil Swiss city, the United States will try to find out, finally, what North Korean President Kim Il Sung has in mind for his fast-moving nuclear weapons program.

Are Kim and his impoverished regime determined to obtain nuclear weapons, no matter what the cost, as the guarantee of their survival? Or do they see nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip that would ultimately be abandoned for the right price from the United States and its allies?

Those questions have bedeviled the Clinton Administration for more than a year, becoming one of the top preoccupations of U.S. foreign policy. Now, in negotiations with North Korea here, the Administration hopes to get some answers.

The talks open today, with Assistant Secretary of State Robert L. Gallucci heading the American team and Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju leading the North Korean delegation. The United States has said it will offer North Korea a series of diplomatic and economic concessions in exchange for abandonment by Pyongyang of its capability to make nuclear weapons.

“We’re prepared to talk to them (the North Koreans) about their concerns,” Gallucci said in a mid-Atlantic interview en route to Geneva. At the same time, he went on, “We’re interested in getting to the heart of the nuclear issue.”

The talks are of extraordinary significance, not only for the nations of Asia but for the future of efforts to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

U.S. officials fear that if North Korea succeeds in developing such weapons, neighboring countries--Japan, South Korea, Taiwan--could feel compelled to follow suit, heightening the risks of destruction in the most economically vibrant region of the globe.

And nations outside the region with the potential to acquire nuclear weapons, such as Iran and Iraq, could eventually take the path blazed by North Korea.

The talks will take place under considerable time pressure.

In early June, defying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), North Korea withdrew spent fuel from its nuclear complex at Yongbyon. The fuel includes plutonium, which could be reprocessed by the end of this year into enough material for five or six nuclear weapons.

That material, in the form of thousands of fuel rods, now sits in pools of water while its intense radioactivity cools down.

The United States held two earlier rounds of talks with North Korea last summer, which were suspended because North Korea repeatedly delayed and resisted efforts by the IAEA to carry out full inspections of Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities.

When North Korea began removing the fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor last month, the Administration began talking to its allies and members of the U.N. Security Council about imposing economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

Then the North Korean president invited former President Jimmy Carter to Pyongyang and gave assurances that he would freeze his nuclear program during a new round of talks.

Few experts believe that the United States and North Korea will solve all of the contentious issues dividing them within the next 10 days. Instead, U.S. officials may seek some short-term deal in which North Korea extends the freeze on nuclear development in exchange for some limited concessions.

That would give the two countries time for further confidence-building steps.

Still, U.S. officials admit the possibility that North Korea’s freeze may be a delaying tactic and that they may find Pyongyang is not willing to negotiate away its nuclear program. In that case, they say, they will soon find themselves again seeking sanctions against North Korea.

The Talks’ Hot Topics

These are the main issues likely to be addressed in negotiations between the United States and North Korea:

Nuclear fuel: North Korea recently removed enough fuel from its nuclear installation at Yongbyon to produce five or six nuclear weapons. The United States wants to make sure that this material remains under international safeguards and is not reprocessed to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

History of the North Korean plant: The United States believes that North Korea diverted nuclear fuel from the Yongbyon plant once before, in 1989, obtaining enough material for one to two nuclear weapons. North Korea has denied doing so, but it has refused to permit international inspectors to carry out the checks needed to verify what happened in 1989. The United States wants North Korea to account for the history of its nuclear program and to give up whatever weapons-grade material it produced.

Diplomatic recognition: North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated states. The Clinton Administration has said that the United States (along with other allies, such as Japan) is prepared to move toward diplomatic relations with the Pyongyang regime as part of a deal for ending the North Korean nuclear program.

Economic aid: The United States has suggested it would help arrange economic help for North Korea as part of a settlement of the nuclear issue. One possibility North Korea mentioned last year would be for the United States and its allies to replace the existing nuclear equipment at the Yongbyon facilities with new light-water nuclear technology, with which it would be much more difficult, if not impossible, for North Korea to make weapons-grade plutonium. Japan, South Korea and some European countries might be asked to help pay for this new technology.

Security: North Korea would like the United States to provide some form of guarantees of its security. In particular, before giving up its nuclear program, Pyongyang wants the United States to promise that it would not use nuclear weapons against North Korea.

Source: Times Staff