N Korea Could Scrap Nuclear Plan for Pipeline

Both South Korean and American officials have claimed that a resolution to the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis should be achieved using different methods than in Iraq. The latest suggestion by the South Korean government is to route a Russian gas pipeline to its northern neighbor, in exchange for Pyongyang's renunciation of all nuclear programs. If the needs of North Korea’s struggling economy outweigh the government’s desire to keep its nuclear program, perhaps an agreement to redirect a pipeline through the nation can result in peaceful disarmament. –YaleGlobal

N Korea Could Scrap Nuclear Plan for Pipeline

Andrew Ward
Sunday, March 30, 2003

North Korea's nuclear weapons programme could be halted by an international deal to ease its chronic energy shortage by laying a gas pipeline to the communist country from Russia, according to plans set to be revealed by the South Korean government.

Ra Jong-yil, Seoul's national security adviser, said thermal power stations drawing from Russian gas would provide a peaceful alternative to Pyongyang's nuclear programme, which could produce weapons - a capability that has alarmed the international community. He said: "Gas could be drawn from either Irkutsk [Siberia] or Sakhalin [east Russia]."

Mr Ra made the proposal in an interview with the Financial Times before his trip this week to Russia and China for talks about the nuclear crisis hanging over the Korean peninsula. This stems from North Korea's desperate need for a fresh source of electricity to prevent its economy from collapse. Pyongyang claims its nuclear programme is for energy production but the US believes it has military purposes.

Mr Ra said the pipeline plans were at an early stage and had not been discussed in detail with its allies or North Korea. Analysts said the multi-billion-dollar scheme could be funded by the US, its allies and the private sector, in return for the verifiable scrapping of nuclear activities by North Korea.

The pipeline would continue into South Korea, making the scheme more viable.

A gas-for-peace deal would replace the failed 1994 Agreed Framework, under which the US and its allies supplied North Korea with oil and agreed to build two peaceful nuclear reactors. In return Pyongyang promised not to develop nuclear weapons. The pact failed last year when the US accused North Korea of continuing to develop nuclear arms in secret. Pyongyang blamed the collapse on delays to construction of the US-backed nuclear power station.

President George W. Bush's administration never disguised its dislike of the Agreed Framework - agreed by former president Bill Clinton - as it amounted to the US, South Korea, Japan and the European Union transferring nuclear technology to a hostile country.

A deal involving gas power would be more acceptable to the US, though Washington insists it will not submit to "nuclear blackmail".

South Korea is pressing the US to pursue a diplomatic solution to its dispute with North Korea, named by Mr Bush as part of an "axis of evil". Yoon Young-kwan, South Korean foreign minister, says: "North Korea and Iraq require different approaches."

Andrew Ward is a reporter in Seoul.

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