At the April 9 meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Washington fell short of obtaining a resolution condemning Pyongyang for developing a nuclear weapons program. The representatives of China and Russia indicated they would oppose such a resolution. The UN body instead expressed its "concern" about the development of nuclear weapons in north Korea.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte called the council decision "acceptable." At the same time, he reiterated Washington’s demand that Pyongyang must not only abandon its "nuclear weapons ambitions" but "accept a reliable verification regime. This would include cooperation, declarations, inspections, and monitoring." Negroponte also issued a warning to north Korea against any "further escalatory steps."

Pyongyang condemned the UN Security Council action. In an earlier statement, the north Korean government had described any decision taken at this session as "a prelude to war." That DPRK foreign ministry statement said that the U.S.-led war against Iraq "shows that to allow disarming through inspection does not help avert war but rather sparks it." The statement continued, "This suggests that even the signing of a nonagression treaty with the U.S. would not help avert war....

"Only a tremendous military deterrent force, powerful enough to decisively beat back an attack supported by any ultra-modern weapons, can avert a war and protect the security of the country. This is a lesson drawn from the Iraqi war." Washington stepped up its threats against the DPRK after U.S. officials charged last October that north Korea had carried out a program to extract enriched uranium as part of longer-term nuclear weapons research. Earlier this year, Washington made similar accusations and demands against Tehran, which has been singled out by the Bush administration, along with Iraq and north Korea, as points on "an axis of evil."

In the ensuing controversy, the U.S. government halted shipments of oil to north Korea, an action followed by Tokyo and Seoul. The shipments were part of the 1994 Agreed Framework. Under this accord, the three governments had also promised to assist in the construction of nuclear power reactors in north Korea that could not be used for reprocessing nuclear-weapons-grade plutonium. In exchange, Pyongyang had agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program.

Lacking oil to meet its power needs, the north Korean government announced last December that it would restart a small reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear power facility. Washington claims that the facility can reprocess enough plutonium to manufacture one nuclear weapon a year. As the UN Security Council met, the CIA released a report claiming that north Korea could produce "two or more nuclear weapons a year." The CIA also asserted that Pyongyang may soon flight test its Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, which would have the capability of striking parts of the United States and could carry a nuclear warhead.

Washington has rebuffed offers by Pyongyang for direct talks and has insisted on "multilateral talks," to enlist Beijing and Moscow’s support to apply greater pressure on north Korea to abandon its nuclear program. Negroponte expressed optimism April 9, stating that "Achieving a multilateral solution may take time but efforts can proceed on several tracks."

Two days later Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Losyukov, said that his government would "review" Moscow’s opposition to sanctions against north Korea if Pyongyang developed nuclear weapons.

The European Union submitted a resolution to the UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva, charging north Korea with human rights violations, including torture and political killings. This was the first time a resolution accusing Pyongyang of human rights violations has been placed before the UN commission in its 57-year history. According to an April 10 Reuters report, Washington is expected to back the resolution and has been lobbying for "tougher" language.

The same week, Richard Lawless, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, visited Seoul to discuss the redeployment of nearly half of the 37,000 U.S. troops in south Korea to a location further south of Seoul. Large demonstrations swept the Seoul last fall against the U.S. military presence, after two south Korean youth were killed by a U.S. military vehicle.

This month, widespread street protests were held against Seoul’s decision to send nearly 700 medical and engineering troops to help the U.S.-led assault on Iraq.

U.S. government officials say the reason to redeploy the 16,000 troops, now stationed along the border with north Korea, is that weapons technology developments make those troops more vulnerable to long-range artillery fire if armed conflict with Pyongyang breaks out.

The April 11 New York Times ran a column by former CIA director Stansfield Turner titled, "Rebuild Iraq, Disarm North Korea." Turner proposed that Washington move now to push for a Security Council resolution on north Korea, "similar to resolution 1441, which demanded the immediate and unconditional disarmament of Iraq." The former CIA head added that this approach "could also be applied to Iran, Libya, Syria and other states suspected of having these dangerous weapons."  
 
 
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