N. Korea issues nuclear 'threat'
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — North Korean negotiators have told U.S. officials in Beijing that the communist nation has nuclear weapons and threatened to export them or conduct a "physical demonstration," U.S. officials said yesterday.
Pyongyang has never before said it had nuclear weapons, though the CIA has estimated it has produced one or possibly two devices. North Korea's unexpected declaration is certain to alarm its neighbors and heighten the crisis atmosphere over its nuclear ambitions.
But North Korea also hinted it might be willing to eventually give up its weapons, officials said, which some saw as a small ray of hope amid the bluster of the North Korean stance.
Secretary of State Colin Powell warned North Korea that the United States would not "be intimidated by bellicose statements or by threats or actions they think might get them more attention or might force us to make a concession that we would not otherwise make." Powell spoke in Washington at the inaugural symposium of the United States Asia Pacific Council, established by Honolulu's East-West Center.
"They're back to the old blackmail game," President Bush said last night in an interview on NBC. "They're making my case."
U.S. officials said North Korea declared it had nuclear weapons as officials were milling about in corridors on Wednesday, the first day of the talks among the United States, North Korea and China. The top North Korean official at the talks, Li Gun, pulled aside the highest-ranking American present, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, and told him that North Korea had nuclear weapons. "We can't dismantle them," Li told Kelly. "It's up to you whether we do a physical demonstration or transfer them."
'Scripted' statement
U.S. officials are still puzzling over the statement and its exact meaning, including whether North Korea was threatening to test a nuclear weapon. But, a senior official said, "it was very fast, very categorical and obviously very scripted."
The North Koreans appeared to play down their admission, saying they had told the United States in 1993 they had nuclear weapons. But U.S. officials have contacted former Clinton administration officials and there appears to be no record of such a statement. North Korea has a history of claiming it made statements in the past that were never made.
During the plenary session, Li, deputy director of American affairs for North Korea's Foreign Ministry, also told the Americans that North Korea has just about completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods into plutonium for weapons — a statement not confirmed by U.S. intelligence. Officials believe that may just be a bluff, but it is a sobering bluff: Analysts have said the fuel rods could be turned into material for two to three nuclear bombs within a few months.
During the talks, Kelly pressed to confirm that Li truly meant to say the reprocessing has been completed, because North Korean officials have made contradictory statements in the past. If the North Korean assertion about reprocessing is correct, it would signify a massive intelligence failure by the United States.
Pyongyang proposal
The crisis began in October, when Washington said North Korea admitted to a covert program to make highly enriched uranium for nuclear arms. It intensified earlier this year, when North Korea restarted a plutonium reactor it had frozen under a 1994 pact with the United States.
During this week's talks, the North Koreans outlined what was described as an extensive proposal for ending the crisis. In effect, U.S. officials said, North Korea wants to re-establish the 1994 agreement under which it would give up its nuclear programs in exchange for a steady supply of energy — but the dismantling of the programs would only take place once Washington fulfilled its end of the bargain.
The U.S. delegation emphasized that the administration would accept nothing less than the complete and verifiable dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs, including the restoration of international inspections, before progress could be made on other areas of the U.S.-North Korean relationship.
The U.S. delegation was under strict instructions not to negotiate. Still, one official said, the small opening in the North Korean statement might provide a reason to continue to another round of talks.
The official said North Korea's Kim Jong Il apparently does not realize Bush has no intention of cutting a deal along the lines of the 1994 pact. "Kim will not get this president's attention without getting rid of his nuclear programs," he said.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the administration would carefully review the talks before deciding how to respond. The North Koreans "said a lot of things that require careful analysis before anybody jumps out and makes grand pronouncements on it means this and it means that," he said.
"The story should not be that San Francisco is about to be incinerated," one government official said. "This is the beginning of a long process."
Yesterday, the second day of the talks, the three parties did not meet together. Instead, China held separate sessions with the United States and with North Korea.
The talks ended today after the Americans and North Koreans met separately with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and held a "brief, informal trilateral meeting," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
China issued a statement saying the talks ended with handshakes and a commitment by all parties to arrange further talks through diplomatic channels.
