UNSC must act on N. Korea

The Daily Yomiuri Asia News Network Tokyo

The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday adopted a resolution by majority vote to refer the North Korean issue to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

On two occasions since autumn, Pyongyang has ignored the IAEA's call to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The IAEA's governing body had no other recourse but to refer the issue to the UNSC in accordance with its charter. Although Russia and Cuba abstained, all the other member countries of the governing body voted for the resolution.

North Korea needs to understand that its own actions have further isolated it from the international community.

Although the UNSC is in the midst of dealing with the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the council must tackle the North Korea issue promptly.

It will be the first time in almost 10 years for the Security Council to take up North Korea's nuclear development.

In 1993, it adopted a resolution calling on North Korea to rescind its planned withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and requested all member countries to settle the crisis through diplomatic efforts.

After many twists and turns at high-level talks between U.S. and North Korean officials, the crisis was resolved with the adoption of the Agreed Framework.

The North Korea issue has been referred to the Security Council at a time when the Agreed Framework has, in essence, become meaningless. Therefore, the situation is more serious than 10 years ago.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet told a Senate committee in Washington on Tuesday: "Kim Jong-il's attempts this past year to parlay the North's nuclear weapons program into political leverage suggest he is trying to negotiate a fundamentally different relationship with Washington--one that implicitly tolerates the North's nuclear weapons program."

Tenet's remarks indicated his strong sense of alarm that North Korea wants to build nuclear weapons, rather than engage in "brinkmanship diplomacy" aimed at receiving benefits in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons program.

While it is important for the United States to take the leading role in dealing with North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, it is difficult to come up with an effective strategy.

The series of hard-line actions Pyongyang has taken since the crisis erupted has exacerbated the situation.

North Korea, which is moving toward restarting its nuclear facilities, has contended that it is pursuing, at least for the moment, the peaceful use of the nuclear facilities to generate electricity. Yet, it has continued to refuse IAEA access to inspect its facilities.

If nuclear fuel rods are reprocessed, North Korea will be able to produce weapons-grade plutonium for at least six nuclear weapons.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that North Korea could produce such plutonium "by May or June." There is no time to lose.

In 1994, when Pyongyang was preparing to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, the U.S. seriously considered carrying out a military strike on North Korea. Should North Korea again start reprocessing nuclear fuel rods, the world should not sit back and do nothing.

North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles pose a serious threat to Japan's national security. Japan must closely cooperate with the U.S. and other countries to remove such a threat.

When we take into account the fact that, unlike 10 years ago, this country is not a member of the Security Council, Japan will have to make a greater diplomatic effort to have its position reflected in the UNSC's decision.