US Report Categorizes NK as Nuclear Power
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
An annual U.S. defense report has categorized North Korea as one of the nuclear powers in Asia, sparking a backlash from South Korea that remains technically at war with the North.
The report, titled ``Joint Operating Environment (JOE) 2008: Challenges and Implications for the Future Joint Force,'' includes Pyongyang in five nuclear weapons states in Asia, alongside China, India, Pakistan and Russia, according to Yonhap News Agency Tuesday.
North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon and has produced sufficient fissile material to create more such weapons, said the report published by the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and released Nov. 25.
The categorization is controversial as the U.S. and South Korean governments have never regarded North Korea as a nuclear state, at least officially, though Pyongyang conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October 2006, according to defense experts here.
In response, Seoul's foreign and defense ministries said they believed that Seoul and Washington still share the view that North Korea has not been declared a nuclear power.
``Asked about the report, Washington officials said the report was wrong and steps to correct it were being undertaken,'' Moon Tae-young, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said. ``South Korea doesn't acknowledge North Korea as a state possessing nuclear weapons.''
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Won Tae-jae said, ``We read the U.S. report online. We're trying to confirm if the report's contents reflect changes in the U.S. Department of Defense's evaluation (of North Korea's nuclear threat) or whether there was just a mistake.''
North Korea is widely believed to have enough plutonium to produce several nuclear weapons, but the number has yet to be confirmed officially.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said earlier that he believed North Korea had enough material to make up to eight nuclear weapons.
Regional powers have been pushing the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions under a 2007 disarmament-for-aid pact. Chief nuclear envoys from the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia opened a fresh round of six-party talks in Beijing Monday to finalize the establishment of a protocol to verify the North's declaration of its nuclear programs and activities.
Meanwhile, the report categorized South Korea, Taiwan and Japan as three ``threshold nuclear states.'' It said the nations ``have the capability to develop nuclear weapons quickly, should their political leaders decide to do so.''
``In effect, there is a growing arc of nuclear powers running from Israel in the west through an emerging Iran to Pakistan, India and on to China, North Korea and Russia in the east,'' the report stated. ``Unfortunately, that nuclear arc coincides with areas of considerable instability ― regions that because of their economic power and energy resources are of enormous interest to the United States.''