U.S. - North Korea

Washington -- Despite revelations that North Korea was helping Syria to build a nuclear reactor, the Bush administration says the United States remains committed to the Six-Party Talks process it established in 2005 with North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia to remove nuclear material from the Korean Peninsula.

“The Six-Party Talks need to move forward,” State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said April 29, describing the process as “the appropriate and best way forward” on ending the threat of nuclear weapons on the peninsula as well as having “a North Korea that is not engaged in proliferation and is not engaged in the production of nuclear materials or nuclear weapons.”

On April 24, U.S. intelligence officials briefed members of the U.S. Congress on North Korea’s cooperation with Syria to build a nuclear reactor that was destroyed in a September 2007 Israeli air strike.  (See “Syria Did Not Disclose Building Nuclear Reactor.”)

Casey said nuclear proliferation has “certainly been an issue” in the Six-Party Talks and that the State Department’s knowledge of North Korea’s activities in Syria has been “factored in all along” in discussions between U.S. and North Korean officials.

“I am not expecting this to be something that would have come as a surprise to the North Koreans or something that they weren’t already talking with us about in the context of the Six-Party Talks,” Casey said.

Some members of Congress who have been critical of the diplomatic approach toward North Korea have expressed renewed displeasure after the Syrian revelations.  However, Casey said the Bush administration intends to move forward with the Six-Party Talks process.

He acknowledged that the Bush administration, in its final year of office, has “a limited amount of time” to make progress in the talks, but said he expects the next U.S. president to continue the same approach.

“[G]iven the absence of anyone providing an alternative to the Six-Party Talks, I think this framework, and this process is what you’re going to see move forward,” Casey said.

Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea said April 28 that North Korea’s involvement with the covert nuclear program in Syria “just underscores the gravity of the proliferation risk and ... puts even more weight on the requirement to achieve an effective verification regime."

The ambassador said there must be “very strict verification and strict compliance” to ensure that North Korea does not engage in future nuclear cooperation with a third party, adding that the United States will not “compromise our standards in getting the necessary commitments and verification measures” from North Korea.

The first phase of the February 13, 2007, Six-Party Talks agreement was completed in 2007 when North Korea shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex in return for energy aid.

However, deputy spokesman Casey said the parties to the talks still are waiting for a full declaration from North Korea of its nuclear materials, as called for under phase two of the agreement.

“We not only need to see an accounting of the full range of the programs, including proliferation, including what’s happened in Syria, but also make sure that, whatever information we receive, we have a reasonable way of being able to verify it,” he said.

“[T]hat’s the only way you’re going to know, ultimately, that you got to a point where that material and those programs and that hardware is all gone, and all accounted for.”
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