Exercise Aims to Inhibit North Korean Arms Trade

September 10, 2003
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — This weekend, U.S. Navy forces and U.S. allies will launch a new program intended to squeeze the North Korean economy by threatening its exports of missiles and other weapons. A high-level State Department official who briefed reporters on Tuesday said Australia, France and Japan would join in operation "Pacific Protector" in the Coral Sea off Australia.

Forces participating in the exercise, the first of 10 planned over the next year, will practice intercepting ships suspected of carrying biological, chemical or nuclear weapons or related materials.

The exercise is going forward amid tensions over North Korea's nuclear program and new threats to test nuclear weapons.

But North Korea showed some restraint at a parade marking the 55th anniversary of the country's founding. About 10,000 troops and civilians marched through the capital to mark the occasion. Press reports in South Korea suggested that the North might display a new long-range ballistic missile. But the troops carried only small arms, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Under Chinese pressure, the North Koreans agreed in talks two weeks ago not to take any "provocative actions" that could escalate its nuclear standoff with the United States, diplomats involved in the talks said. But there appeared to be concern among countries in the region that the U.S.-led exercises could generate new hostility and provocative actions by the unpredictable North Koreans.

China, North Korea's main trading partner, Russia and South Korea have not joined the U.S.-led interception program, known as the Proliferation Security Initiative. Sun Weide, press counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said China questions the legal basis of the effort and fears that intercepting North Korean shipments would set back negotiations with North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program. "We hope the parties will be prudent," Sun said.

Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Spain and Germany also have agreed to take part in the initiative. The 11 countries will share intelligence and cooperate to intercept suspected weapons of mass destruction. The administration is approaching all other nations with which the United States has diplomatic relations to enlist support, said the high-level State Department official, who asked not to be named.

So far, there have been no dramatic interceptions on the high seas since a Spanish ship caught the North Koreans sending Scud missiles to Yemen last year. In the incident, which helped lead to the initiative, the shipment was allowed to proceed, the U.S. official said, because Yemen is an ally in the U.S. war on terrorism and promised the purchase would be its last from North Korea. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer conceded at the time there was no legal basis to seize the missiles.

However, the State Department official said there was a legal basis to stop the ship because it was flying a false flag and its manifest did not disclose the lethal cargo. The official said the legality of future interdictions would be decided on a "case-by-case" basis.

The official suggested that the mere existence of the interdiction program would inhibit weapons trade by North Korea and Iran — the two states named as of "particular proliferation concern." The goal, he said, was to make proliferation more expensive and difficult.

Other Korea experts said the publicity surrounding the exercises could be useful. "This administration believes not just in the bite but the bark, and its hope is that the bark will get the North Koreans to be more cautious," says Robert Einhorn, who negotiated with North Korea under the Clinton administration.

Richard Bush, director of Asian policy studies at the Brookings Institution, said the strategy was intended to increase stress on North Korea's economy, which has few sources of hard currency beyond exporting weapons and illegal drugs. Drugs are not included in the initiative, however.

The program satisfies hard-liners in the Bush administration who hold out little hope that North Korea will give up its weapons through negotiations.

But Ashton Carter, a former Pentagon official who also served in the Clinton administration, said the program could not prevent North Korea from selling a small lump of plutonium sufficient to build a nuclear weapon. "It's a fantasy to imagine that we can put a hermetic seal around North Korea and be sure that a soccer-ball-sized package doesn't get out," Carter said.

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