EDITORIAL

October 10, 2006
Pakistan - The Nation - Original Article (English)

Harold M. Agnew, former
director of Los Alamos
Labs: Agnew oversaw
the building of 75% of
America's nuclear
arsenal. Pyongyang
proved him wrong.


Harold M. Agnew holds
the Nagasaki bomb core,
Tinian Island, 1945.


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PYONGYANG has finally conducted a successful nuclear test. The test proved wrong all of those who maintained, like former Los Alamos Laboratory director Harold M. Agnew, that the North Koreans might be "jerking Washington around" to extract concessions.

The test will encourage other countries to follow suit and upset the strategic balance of power in a number of regions, creating both political and economic security concerns. With the world's tenth largest economy, South Korea felt the shockwave of the test immediately, with stocks plunging 3.6 percent and the won falling sharply. Given the maverick nature of the "Dear Leader, who has already displayed his willingness to launch missiles against Japan, neighboring countries might now consider developing their own nuclear weapons and delivery systems. In view of the advanced state of its technology, Japan could assemble a nuclear device within a year. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Japan would send shockwaves through the many South Asian countries that were Japan occupied by during WWII. If Taiwan decides to follow the nuclear path, tension between the U.S. and China would increase significantly. And a nuclear arms race could not be ruled out in the Middle East, not to mention Iran.

These developments represent a failure of America's East Asia policy, particularly in regard to North Korea. Having disregarded the advice of successive South Korean Governments, which had proposed pursuing a "Sunshine Policy" of trade, tourism and opening up to the North, Washington refused to accept Pyongyang's terms for calling off its nuclear program. Three successive U.S. Presidents disregarded North Korean pleas for Washington's assurance that it wouldn't be subject to aggression, and for all sanctions to be lifted and normal trade ties restored.

But under President George W. Bush, who declared North Korea a rogue state and part of the Axis of Evil, American bluster climaxed. He also ordered a clampdown on North Korea's foreign bank accounts. This led Pyongyang to pull out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003. Nevertheless, it agreed to attend the Six-Party Talks on disarmament, but withdrew when Washington failed to address its concerns security and economic concerns.

Is President George W. Bush partly responsible
for creating a Nuclear-Armed North Korea?


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The failure of the nuclear club's own members to reduce their lethal arsenals, and pursue their eventual elimination, deprives them of any moral authority to stop others from developing such weapons. This is all the more so in the case of the United States, which connived with Israel as Tel Aviv accumulated a nuclear arsenal. Washington's agreement to supply India with civilian nuclear technology scant years after its first nuclear tests, have further weakened the case of those pleading for nonproliferation.