Author: Jyoti Malhotra
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 26, 2002
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=13721
Introduction: Mishra to meet Rice;
US security envoy to be in Delhi
India and the US are getting set
for another round of high-powered discussions in early-mid December with
Principal Secretary and National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra visiting
his counterpart Condoleezza Rice, and the US deputy National Security Advisor
Steve Hadley journeying to New Delhi about the same time.
New Delhi is interested in finding
answers to a story it has been discussing with Washington for at least
the last four years: Pakistan's nuclear-missile quid pro quo with North
Korea.
In the wake of a series of articles
appearing in the Western press, which document the transfer by Islamabad
of nuclear centrifuges to North Korea, in exchange for the wholesale transfer
of the Korean Nodong missiles- rechristened Ghauri or Shaheen in Pakistan-the
Indian establishment is seeking to persuade Washington that Emperor Musharraf,
despite the new veil of democracy at home, has not really changed his clothes.
''If Pakistan can sell nuclear technology
to a state like North Korea, which has been described as part of the 'axis
of evil' by the US, then it could have also sold it to the Al-Qaeda,''
officials here said, adding, ''Pakistan's whole nuclear-missle edifice
has been built on clandestine procurement.''
Certainly, Mishra is likely to raise
this issue with Rice in his talks, while the Foreign Office will do likewise
with Steve Hadley. New Delhi will point out that Musharraf's establishment
is using American equipment meant to fight the Al Qaeda-Taliban in Afghanistan
to secretly continue its own nuclear deals with states like North Korea.
Sources pointed out that a US C-130
transport aircraft, given to Pakistan after nuclear sanctions were lifted
a year ago, had flown into North Korea as late as this July, when tensions
between India and Pakistan ran high.
When American intelligence tracked
down the aircraft, they found that its secret payload contained ballistic
missile parts. ''The C-130 is not part of Kahuta's inventory,'' sources
said, referring to the Pakistani city where the AQ Khan Research Laboratories,
or its uranium enrichment facilities are located, adding, ''What was it
doing in North Korea?''
Significantly, the first conversations
between India and the US on the North Korea-Pakistan nexus were held in
late 1998-early 1999, within months of the tit- for-tat nuclear tests conducted
by New Delhi and Islamabad.
During the ''strategic dialogue''
started between former Foreign minister Jaswant Singh and the US Deputy
Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, the Indian side stressed that the Pakistani
test-firing of the Ghauri and Shaheen missiles on the eve of the nuclear
tests pointed to North Korea.
The North Korean Nodong missile
is driven by liquid fuel as was the Pakistani version, in contrast with
the Chinese M-11 missile is propelled by solid fuel, highly placed sources
said.
Then, in 1999, the North Korean
ship, the MV Ku Wol San, ran aground on the west coast of India. It was
deemed to have been on its way to Karachi. New Delhi gave ''unprecedented
access to the Americans to everything aboard that ship,'' sources said.
''With much greater resources at
their command, the US obviously knew about Pakistan's help to North Korea.
But they kept quiet,'' the sources said.
By mid-1999, when the Ku Wol San
began to spill her secrets to the Americans, the Clinton administration
was caught up in the impeachment of the President.
Nevertheless, the assistant secretary
for non-proliferation Robert Einhorn-who was a key figure on the India-US
strategic dialogue-as well as White House senior director Gary Semour assisting
Einhorn were closely following the North Korean story.
Clinton officials protected their
President from a public outcry that was bound to have focused on the failed
1994 deal that Clinton signed with Pyongyang, in which Korea gave up its
nuclear programme for energy from lightwater reactors.
The great cover-up continued under
Bush-until September 11. But the war and the consequent hunt for the Al-Qaeda
in Afghanistan meant that Musharraf had become such a crucial figure that
he ''had to be protected at all costs,'' Indian analysts said.
