North Korea’s alleged capability to produce nuclear bombs through enriched uranium is not surprising. It was a matter of time before Pyongyang produced bombs in a cost-effective and easy way. What is alarming is Korea and the United States have no feasible strategy to dissuade the North from going nuclear.
U.S. nuclear envoy Stephen Bosworth is in talks with Korean officials in Seoul. He is to travel to China and Japan to assess North Korea’s recent nuclearization move.
His visit was prompted by American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker's revelation. The Stanford University professor reportedly visited a vast new plant for enriching uranium with hundreds of centrifuges at a North Korean plant. The communist country alleges that it has 2,000 modern centrifuges.
Pyongyang’s showcase of the facility to the scientist is highly calculated. It is a strong message to the United States. Pyongyang ruled out any intention of stopping the uranium enrichment process without a settlement of fundamental issues with Washington.
By fundamental, it means that the United States and North Korea should establish diplomatic ties and sign a nonaggression pact.
The Obama administration appears to have little stomach for actively engaging the North. It is on the same wavelength as South Korea. Namely Pyongyang must denuclearize first before talking about such fundamental issues as diplomatic establishment and the signing of a nonaggression pact.
It may be naive to expect the Kim Jong-il regime to scrap the nuclear weapons program under whatever circumstances. The North has repeatedly exploited the nuclear card to save time to produce additional bombs, extort external assistance and unite its oppressed citizens.
Under the liberal rule of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, Seoul had actively engaged with the North, providing aid with the hope that Pyongyang would ultimately forgo its nuclear program.
Coincidently or not, the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration has officially concluded in its White Paper last week that the Sunshine Policy of engaging with the North has failed. Pyongyang wants the resumption of Seoul’s engagement policy on condition for talks on ways of easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Seoul and Washington have three options in tackling the nuclear stalemate. The first is to maintain the current status-quo policy of no-talk-before-denuclearization. This will lead to the mushrooming of 30-40 nuclear bombs in the North and a possible nuclear proliferation beyond North Korea.
The second is the start of an action-for-action dialogue with North Korea. Kim Jong-il has repeatedly linked the nuclear-free North Korea to the establishment of U.S.-North Korea diplomatic ties and a signing of a nonaggression pact. He had publicized his willingness to respect his father Kim Il-sung’s instruction that North Korea should not possess nuclear weapons.
The third option is for the two Koreas to resolve the stalemate themselves. No country other than the two Koreas, can resolve the inter-Korean issue.