Japan’s Kyodo News Network cites a high-ranking U.S. official as saying that the U.S. might submit the North Korean nuclear issue to the UN Security Council is there’s no progress in the third round of six-party talks:
WASHINGTON, May 25 Kyodo - The United States may consider bringing the case of North Korea’s nuclear arms programs to the U.N. Security Council for economic sanctions if no progress is made in the planned third round of six-party talks, a senior U.S. administration official said Tuesday.
”I’m happy to say that there’s going to be three strikes and you’re out,” the official told Kyodo News on condition of anonymity.
The official said there has basically been no progress in the previous two rounds of plenary talks held by China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions and also at their recent first working group meeting.
Granted, the North Koreans won’t be happy about this. Neither will the South Korean leadership, for that matter, but if this NYT piece means anything, Washington and Tokyo might be cutting Seoul out of the loop already:
Two weeks ago, after the midlevel regional talks on North Korea’s nuclear bomb program, the Kyodo News Agency of Japan sent a long dispatch from Beijing under the headline, “S. Korea’s Softer Stance on N. Korea Worries Japan, U.S.”
Kyodo accused Japanese and American negotiators of not sharing with their South Korean counterparts intelligence information that had been gleaned from interviews with members of the nuclear supply network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former leader of Pakistan’s main nuclear laboratory.
Kyodo also contended on May 15 that when South Korea joined talks with Japan and the United States, “the topic of Khan-related intelligence was not put on the table, apparently due to fears it could end up in Pyongyang through Seoul.”
True? Who knows, but it certainly sounds plausible. Regardless, with recent reports that the North Koreans might have provided Libya with nuclear material, I don’t see how one could possibly avoid discussing the issue in the Security Council if those reports pan out, even if South Korean crab fishermen can sleep sounder tonight.
Korean-language Yonhap report here.
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One Comment
Should be no surprise that the U.S. is weary about sharing NK intelligence with the South Korean government. The information would probably go straight north. Honestly, do you trust Unification Minister Jeong?