BY NAOMI CRAINE
Washington has escalated its threats and provocations against
the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), accusing the
north Korean government of building nuclear weapons and demanding
to send "inspectors" to an alleged construction site.
At the heart of the situation is Washington's refusal to fulfill its commitments under a 1994 agreement it signed with the DPRK government, said Li Hyong Chol, the country's ambassador to the United Nations, in a December 21 interview. "The U.S. government has tried to transfer responsibility for this to the Korean side. They have threatened the Korean people by force of arms," he said.
Under the 1994 accord, Washington agreed to organize the construction of two light-water nuclear power reactors in the DPRK by the year 2003, provide about 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually until those reactors are running, ease the severe economic embargo the U.S. rulers have imposed for decades, and take some steps toward normalizing diplomatic relations. The DPRK government agreed to freeze the use of graphite nuclear power reactors it had been operating.
"We've implemented our part of the deal in good faith," Li said. "On the U.S. side, there's been a big delay in the construction. Four years have passed already, and they're still digging the ground" for the light-water reactors. The promised fuel oil has been delayed as well, and only a portion of it provided. There has been no lifting of the sanctions, the ambassador said. The only exception has been allowing some direct telephone lines. Washington "still holds DPRK assets frozen in U.S. bank accounts," he noted.
Now the Clinton administration has begun demanding to inspect an underground site where U.S. officials claim they suspect nuclear facilities may be constructed. The DPRK government responded that this would only be allowed if the U.S. government paid $300 million in compensation. Washington refused, and now asserts that if the matter is not resolved "satisfactorily" the 1994 framework agreement will be invalid.
"One thing we can learn from Iraq," Li said, "is that if you let them inspect one site they will come back and demand to see three more. They just keep changing the conditions. This is not acceptable."
Meanwhile, U.S. military forces have stepped up their maneuvers in the area, together with troops from Japan and the south Korean government in Seoul, including three different operations between October 24 and November 7. "Publications in a third country have openly carried reports that the U.S. military has completed a new war plan for the invasion of north Korea," said a statement issued by the spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army December 2. "The gist of the `Operation Plan 5027' is a plan for a second Korean War of aggression allegedly to retaliate against the DPRK for the U.S. defeat in the past Korean War."
The U.S. Defense Department issued a report November 23 that called for maintaining about 100,000 U.S. troops in east Asia to cope with a "crisis" on the Korea peninsula. Of these, some 40,000 are permanently stationed in south Korea, enforcing the division of the peninsula that Washington has maintained since the 1950-53 Korean War.
In addition to participating in U.S. war games in the area, the Japanese government approved plans December 22 to launch four reconnaissance satellites by 2002, supposedly in response to the DPRK launching of a satellite last August. Tokyo claimed the rocket was a ballistic missile.
In another attack on the DPRK, the Seoul government claimed its forces sank a north Korean military vessel, which it first described as a submarine and then as a speed boat, off the south Korea coast in mid-December. The south Korean government says it retrieved one body, and is demanding the DPRK government apologize for the alleged incursion. Pyongyang says it knows nothing about the vessel. The boat itself may not be dredged up from the ocean floor for a month, according to BBC television.
The Korean people will fight back in the face of U.S. aggression, Li said. "We don't want war, but we aren't cowards. Military force is not the monopoly of the United States."
Pointing to how the big-business media gives only Washington's version of events, he said, "We hope our side of the story can be heard by the public. And we welcome any actions of solidarity with the Korean people - for peace, stability, and unification."