US - North Korea
U.S. Will Not Accept North Korea as Nuclear Weapons State
By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
June 1, 2009
Washington — The United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told an annual Asian security conference in Singapore.
“Dependent on the charity of the international community to alleviate the hunger and suffering of its people, North Korea’s leadership has chosen to focus the North’s limited energies and resources on a reckless and ultimately self-destructive quest for nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Gates said. “The programs have isolated North Korea globally and, quite literally, starved its people.”
North Korea’s actions constitute a threat to regional peace and security, and the United States reaffirms its commitment to defending allies in the region, Gates said. The threat has grown with the greater reach of North Korea’s Taepodong-2 long-range missiles.
“The United States and our allies are open to dialogue, but we will not bend to pressure or provocation,” Gates said in detailed remarks May 30 on U.S. security concerns throughout the Asian region. “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia — or on us.”
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion May 25 (9 p.m. EDT May 24), and also test-fired three short-range, ground-to-air and ground-to-ship ballistic missiles. On May 26, North Korea test-fired two more short-range missiles from its northeast coast missile test facility. And on May 29, North Korea test-fired a sixth short-range missile from its northeastern coastal Musudan-ri launch site, South Korean defense officials told the news media.
Additional reports indicate that North Korea may be preparing to move a long-range missile by train from a weapons factory near Pyongyang, its capital city, to Musudan-ri, the Associated Press reported. On April 5, North Korea test-fired a Taepodong-2 missile that fell into the Pacific Ocean. The Taepodong-2, one of North Korea’s newest missiles, has a range of approximately 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles), and would pose a threat to most of East Asia, Alaska and Hawaii. North Korea first tested one of the Taepodong-2 missiles in 2006.
The eighth annual Shangri-La Dialogue is a regional defense conference organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and named for the luxury hotel in Singapore where it is held. It brings together the highest ranking national security and defense officials from across the Asian region and the United States.
While attending the conference, Gates also met with defense officials from China, South Korea, Japan and other Asian nations to pull together an international consensus on what steps to take to curb North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. The United States and other allies have been conducting Six-Party Talks aimed at removing all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. China hosts the six-nation negotiations, which also include North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.
ASIAN SECURITY CHALLENGES
Gates said the new strategic reality in Asia is that since the end of the Cold War, Asia’s security environment has undergone significant change driven by globalization and the technological revolution of the past 20 years. “In recent years, the nations of Asia have, for the most part, achieved unprecedented wealth and stature as they have forged more mature political, economic and military institutions,” the defense secretary said.
This is happening while the strategic landscape of Asia continues to evolve, Gates said. Civil societies and democratic reforms have taken root in Asia, and that has had a profound impact on domestic politics and national security policies.
“The challenge for the United States has been to fashion defense policies that adapt to new realities — but do so in a way that preserves and protects our fundamental, and enduring, interests and values [in] the Pacific Rim, which includes the security and stability of the region as a whole,” Gates said. “Likewise, it is essential that we are transparent, both to each other and the rest of the world, about our strategic goals, political intentions and military development.”
Gates’ appearance at the Shangri-La conference this year is his first representing the Obama administration, which came into office in January.
Some of the challenges facing Asia are the traditional dilemmas posed by rising, resurgent or rogue nations that now must coexist with a range of diverse, unconventional threats that cross national borders, Gates said. “Some are ancient — such as piracy, ethnic strife and poverty. Others are of more recent vintage: terrorist networks harnessing new technologies, weapons proliferation, environmental degradation, drug and human trafficking, cyber security, climate change, economic turmoil in the global markets, and the emergence of deadly and contagious diseases that can spread more rapidly than ever before in human history,” he said.
“It has become clear in just the last two decades that ‘security’ encompasses far more than just military considerations. What these challenges all have in common is that they simply cannot be overcome by one or even two countries, no matter how wealthy or powerful. The best solutions require multiple nations acting with uncommon unity,” Gates said.