Washington – The Bush administration, under fire for policies that have failed to stop North Korea from advancing its nuclear-weapons arsenal, on Tuesday ruled out direct talks with Pyongyang in the aftermath of its apparent nuclear test.
Instead, the United States and other world powers continued discussing tough U.N. sanctions on North Korea that would authorize inspection of cargo going to or coming from the country to halt weapons-related transfers.
In a significant development, China, which is North Korea’s principal ally, said for the first time it would agree to sanctions on the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
“I think there has to be some punitive actions,” said Wang Guangya, China’s ambassador to the United Nations.
“We need to have a firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response to North Korea’s nuclear threat,” he said, without being more specific.
China, which has led diplomatic efforts to engage Pyongyang, was deeply embarrassed by North Korea’s action, but Bei jing is wary of destabilizing North Korea because a collapse of the regime could flood China with millions of extremely poor refugees. It’s unclear how far China will go in curtailing crucial food and energy supplies or other trade.
“I think they’re going to do some sanctions that will sting but not ultimately paralyze North Korea. The only thing they worry more about than a nuclear weapon is the collapse of North Korea,” said Kurt Campbell, a former top Pentagon official on Asia policy who’s now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national- security research center.
Officials from the United States and other Western governments privately echoed that analysis.
Intelligence officials said Tuesday they were still analyzing the underground blast that occurred Monday morning local time in North Korea.
U.S. Air Force monitoring aircraft haven’t yet picked up the signs of radiation usually associated with such a test. The blast itself is thought to have had less than a kiloton of force, perhaps significantly less, leading experts to question whether the test was only partially successful.
North Korea’s claimed nuclear test – U.S. intelligence agencies still hadn’t confirmed it Tuesday – has brought wide condemnation and given new impetus to the U.S. drive for further sanctions.
But the White House also found itself on the defensive Tuesday against critics who said President Bush’s policy of refusing to engage North Korea in direct, one-on-one talks had backfired.
Bush said in May 2003 that the United States wouldn’t tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea. Since that time, Pyongyang is thought to have expanded its stockpile of nuclear weapons, has broken a self-imposed moratorium on test-firing ballistic missiles and on Monday apparently conducted its first underground nuclear-weapons test.
Campbell, who served during the Clinton administration, gave the Bush administration high marks for its muscular response to the crisis this week, but he said the administration should have tried a different approach earlier.
“The biggest problem has been a reluctance to engage (North Korea) diplomatically,” he said. The administration, he said, seems to “worry that by talking to them at a very high level, that we are somehow blessing … a reprehensible regime.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Bush aides ruled out direct talks, arguing that the Clinton administration had tried it and that it failed.
“The United States tried direct dialogue with the North Koreans in the ’90s. And that resulted in the North Koreans signing on to agreements that they then didn’t keep,” Rice said on CNN.
She referred to a 1994 deal known as the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea’s known nuclear program, involving plutonium, was frozen.
The United States charges that Pyongyang cheated on the deal by pursuing a second, covert program based on uranium enrichment.
Rice argued that the U.S. is in a stronger position to deal with North Korea because Japan, South Korea and, especially, China are prepared to take united action against the country.
