Experts Ask US To Use Ex-Soviet Plan To End Korean Nuclear Crisis

A group of experts urged the United States Friday to use programs once used to contain the former Soviet Union’s weapons threat in current efforts to end the Korean nuclear crisis.

They suggested so-called “cooperative threat reduction” programs, which Washington used in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union to contain the threat from weapons of mass destruction held by its successor states.

They were confident that the United States and North Korea would eventually be able to resolve their differences in six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons drive.

“With better relations between Washington and Pyongyang, North Korea may be open to dismantling parts or even all of its WMD program in return for tangible political, economic and security benefits that might be provided through a program like cooperative threat reduction,” the experts said in a report.

Among the authors of the report is Joel Wit, who served for 15 years in the State Department in positions related to Northeast Asia, nuclear arms control, and weapons proliferation.

“I think (the programs) are absolutely applicable” to North Korea, Wit, now a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a forum Friday.

Wit, Jon Wolfsthal, another weapons control expert at the center, and Rose Gottemoeller from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in the report that the proposed programs should be a US-led effort, with participation from Russia, China, South Korea and the European Union, among others.

The programs should cover North Korea’s nuclear, missile and chemical and biological weapons.

“Elimination of these threats will require a series of diplomatic agreements, perhaps stretching out over the next decade at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars,” they said.

“It will be a difficult process that will require using all means to secure North Korean agreement and to provide reasonable assurance that Pyongyang is living up to its commitments,” they said.

US officials have said that Washington plans to retrain a small numbers of North Korean nuclear scientists and technicians if six-party talks among the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan end with a solid agreement.

But the experts called for “far-reaching proposals” that would demonstrate to North Korea “a long-term commitment on the part of the United States not only to implementation of any Beijing agreement but also to helping Pyongyang redirect important resources that may bolster its economic development.

“And more far-reaching proposals would give the United States and others a greater chance of increasing transparency as well as of increasing the chances that a diplomatic solution will be long-lasting and irreversible,” they said.

North Korea has agreed in principle to dismantle its atomic weapons network in return for energy aid and diplomatic and security guarantees but talks stalled after Washington imposed economic sanctions on it over alleged illicit financial dealings, including counterfeiting and money laundering.

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