Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Song Min-soon has flatly denied the recent report that North Korea may be aiding Syria with a nuclear facility. ``The suspicion involving North Korea and Syria has been raised by unverified sources,'' Song said during a meeting organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Monday.
Earlier, The New York Times first reported the suspicious nuclear deal based on testimonies from unidentified sources. Other newspapers followed. The right-wing Wall Street Journal even urged Washington to halt the ongoing nuclear talks with the reclusive nation until lingering suspicions are cleared.
We believe it is improper for the papers to carry the articles without identifying the sources, as such speculation would seriously undermine the multilateral nuclear negotiations. It is not desirable to raise the allegation with only quotes from officials of Israel, which has been in antagonistic relations with Syria.
In fact, the nuclear talks have already been delayed with North Korea having complained over China's failure in delivering heavy oil. But this seems to be an excuse. Rather, the North might have harbored dissatisfaction over the attempt to undermine the six-way talks by some hawks in the U.S. administration, who support Israel.
The U.S. was to deal with the issue of lifting North Korea from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism without subjecting it to the Trading with the Enemy in exchange for the North's possible denuclearization. The hawks in Washington called neo-conservatives (Neocon) have been opposing the move fearing it will lead to generous steps for Syria and Iran, the pending enemies of Israel. The hardliners have been attempting to dampen the detente mood between North Korea and the U.S. by highlighting the threats from North Korea and Syria.
In a goodwill gesture toward possible normalization of relations with the U.S., North Korea Monday confessed it had been operating uranium enrichment program (UEP) but gave up such attempt due to lack of money and technology. We believe North Korea's such confession should be the starting point in resolving the lingering distrust between Pyongyang and Washington.
The conflict surrounding freezing of North Korea's money in Banco Delta Asia (BDA) found solution when the North partially admitted it had engaged in faking dollars. The hawks have been a major obstacle to resolving the nuclear issue, and a political burden on President George Bush as a result. Many of the hardliners have bowed out of the stage including John Bolton, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. However, they would not give up efforts to exert influence on U.S. policy.
With a series of diplomatic blunder coupled with the humiliating defeat in the recent election, the Bush administration has been pursuing a sort of engagement policy toward the North. This has helped to speed up peaceful resolution of nuclear discord and promote peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and East Asia. Hawks' attempts to dampen the peace process will only invite negative repercussion and backtrack it to never-ending confrontation.