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Pakistan's N. Korea Deals Stir Scrutiny

Pakistan's N. Korea Deals Stir Scrutiny

Author: Glenn Kessler
Publication: Washington Post
Date: November 13, 2002
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45961-2002Nov12.html

The Bush administration has evidence that suggests Pakistan assisted  North Korea's covert nuclear weapons program as recently as three  months ago, much later than previously disclosed, according to  sources in the administration and on Capitol Hill.

While the administration has taken a hard line against North Korea,  demanding that it verify it has dismantled its efforts to enrich  uranium before U.S. officials engage in further discussions with the  communist state, it has taken a much softer tack against Pakistan.  Publicly, officials have suggested that if Pakistan, a key ally in  the war against terrorism, had provided help to North Korea in the  past, it changed its behavior after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in  New York and Washington.

But in reality, U.S. officials say, the administration believes  Pakistan continued to trade nuclear technical knowledge, designs and  possibly material in exchange for missile parts up until this  summer, when the administration concluded North Korea was secretly  trying to construct a facility to enrich uranium for a bomb.  Administration officials would not discuss the extent of the  evidence, but they said it involves highly suspicious shipping trade.

"Let's put it this way: There were still shenanigans going on three  months ago," an administration official said. Intelligence officials  who have briefed members of Congress have also disclosed the  administration's concerns that Pakistan's illicit nuclear trade  continued well into this year.

Pakistan's involvement in North Korea's program has put the  administration in an extremely delicate position. Under U.S. law, if  the president determines that a country has delivered nuclear  enrichment equipment, material or technology without international  safeguards, the United States must suspend economic and military  aid. Such sanctions were imposed against Pakistan in 1979, but last  year President Bush waived them and other nuclear-related sanctions  after the Pakistani government agreed to help in the fight against  al Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taliban militia after the Sept. 11  attacks.

Rather than press Pakistan for a full accounting, U.S. officials  said they have noted the latest evidence -- which Pakistani  officials have argued is innocent -- and believe they have put  Pakistan on notice that future violations will not be tolerated.  Intelligence officials plan to closely scrutinize transactions  between Pakistan and North Korea.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has personally guaranteed that  questionable transactions with North Korea will cease, and U.S.  officials believe he would like to halt the nuclear leakage. But  they also question whether he has full control of all entities that  could be doing business with North Korea. "In the end, we may find  he is only partially truthful," the official said.

Several experts said it will be difficult to understand the scope of  the North Korean program -- which by some estimates would not be  operational for several years -- unless the administration demands  that Pakistan disclose exactly what it might have provided to North  Korea.

"We have asked North Korea to verifiably dismantle its nuclear  enrichment program," said Robert J. Einhorn, former assistant  secretary of state for nonproliferation in the Clinton and Bush  administrations and now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic  and International Studies. "How will we know if North Korea has done  that unless we know precisely what Pakistan has transferred to North  Korea?"

Pakistani officials publicly insist that they have not helped the  North Korean program in any way.

"No material, no technology ever has been exported to North Korea,"  said Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the Pakistani ambassador to the United  States. "I can assure you there is no way we would underestimate the  seriousness of such an international breach."

Qazi said that while Pakistan has engaged in trade with North  Korea, "nobody can tell us if there is evidence, no one is  challenging our word. There is no smoking gun."

Last month, U.S. officials confronted North Korea with their  conclusion that it had a covert nuclear program. Then, North Korea  unexpectedly admitted it.

Pakistan produces highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, and  U.S. officials have long suspected that Pakistani nuclear scientists  had disturbing ties to the North Koreans.

In the face of Pakistan's vehement denials, U.S. officials have been  publicly anxious not to suggest that Musharraf, who seized power in  1999 in a bloodless coup, is anything but a close friend and ally.

Indeed, asked last month about reports that Pakistan provided  assistance to North Korea's program, White House spokesman Ari  Fleischer did not confirm the reports but noted: "Many things that  people may have done years before September 11th or some time before  September 11th, have changed. September 11th changed the world and  it changed many nations' behaviors along with it."

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has been careful publicly not to  suggest when Pakistan may have helped North Korea. Instead, he said  that as recently as last month, he spoke to Musharraf "about the  need not to assist North Korea in any way and have any kind of  relationship with North Korea now that would give them the  wherewithal to develop those kinds of weapons or the means to  deliver them."

Powell said he purposely did not dwell on past behavior because "the  past is the past and there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. I'm  more concerned about what is going on now. We have a new  relationship with Pakistan."

Leonard Weiss, a former Senate staffer who specialized in  nonproliferation issues, said there is "no question" that, under a  1976 law known as the Symington amendment, Pakistan would qualify  for sanctions if it aided North Korea's program. But he said that if  officials decide not to probe too deeply, "they avoid the political  problem of having to give them a waiver."
 


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