Show Bush Must of With Communication With N. N N Korea Kore a Leon V. V Sigal Special to The Baltimore Sun North Korea has just shut down its nuclear reactor at Soon it will willbe willbe willbe be able to extract the two bombs' bombs worth or more of plutonium contained in its spent fuel and use it to make weapons The only way for the Bush administration administration administration adminis adminis- to stop that is to communicate directly and authoritatively to Pyongyang that it is ready to end enmity by renouncing any attempt to attack orto or orto orto to overthrow the regime and by normalizing normalizing normalizing normal normal- izing relations as the North eliminates its nuclear programs As North Korea made clear in six- six party talks in June it is ready to freeze its plutonium program as a step to dismantling dismantling dismantling dis dis- dis- dis mantling it As part of the freeze it said it would put the five or six bombs' bombs worth of plutonium it reprocessed last year back under inspection ensuring that it would not be turned into bombs or sold to terrorists It sought an agreement in principle that the United States would normalize relations and provide it with written security assurances In return for the freeze it wanted Washington to participate participate participate pate along with Seoul and Tokyo Toko in supplying supplying supplying sup sup- plying it with electricity as promised under the October 1994 Agreed Framework It also asked to be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and to have related sanctions relaxed Without a deal it made clear it will continue continue continue con con- making nuclear weapons If Pyongyang were to extend its freeze and dismantlement pledge to cover its uranium enrichment activities as well that would defuse the crisis and allow time to negotiate inspections and other issues of concern liners Hard-liners in the Bush administration have opposed any such deal Instead they have ins insisted sted that Pyongyang must L J n r Washington would take steps to cate They have equated diplomatic take give-and-take with rewarding bad behavior They have claimed that under the Agreed Framework North Korea duped President Clinton by halting its plutonium program while starting a covert effort to enrich uranium The trouble is that claim is pure fic fic- fic- fic tion Washington got what it most wanted wanted wanted want want- ed up front a freeze of Pyongyang's plutonium plutonium plutonium plu plu- program which by now could have generated enough plutonium for at least 50 bombs But it failed to reward North Koreas Korea's good behavior When Republicans won control of Congress in elections just days after the October 1994 accord was signed they denounced I. I the deal as appeasement Shying away from taking them on Clinton on implementation President Bush only made matters worse by talking about pre-emptive pre attack In the belief that North Korea is on the verge of collapse liners hard-liners in the administration are pushing for an economic economic economic eco eco- embargo and naval blockade to strangle it to death But all of the Norths North's neighbors know that an embargo and blockade would provoke it to arm sooner sooner sooner soon soon- er than collapse which is why they wont won't try Instead they have pursued talks of their with North Korea own WhICh convinced them mem that mat Pyongyang was willing to deal By impeding a cooperative solution the liners hard-liners have put Washington on a collision course not just with Pyongyang but also with Americas America's allies in Asia They are eroding political support in South Korea and Japan for the alliance and jeopardizing the US U.S. troop presence in the region The chief beneficiary of their intransigence has been China The liners' liners strategy has failed North Korea has just called their bluff bluff and raised the stakes The only way to reverse the political erosion in northeast Asia and improve US U.S. security is for forBush forBush forBush Bush to try negotiating for a change |