- TEL AVIV - An Israeli
think tank sees North Korea's disclosure of its nuclear program as the
end of the myth of arms control.
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- "There's lots of scientific exchanges between North
Korea and such countries as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya," Gerald
Steinberg, a leading Israeli strategist and professor at Bar-Ilan University,
said.
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- Steinberg, who directs a center on arms control, said
North Korea's nuclear weapons capability stems from Pakistan. He said Pyongyang
could transfer this capability to a range of countries in the Middle East,
Middle East Newsline reported.
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- "This was the last nail in the coffin of arms control,"
Steinberg said. "We have to get used to the fact that several countries,
including those in the Middle East, will have nuclear weapons."
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- Steinberg called on Israel to revise its deterrence model
that would take into account several nuclear powers in the Middle East.
He said such a model would be based on mutual-assured destruction, similar
to the doctrine that characterized the Cold War.
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- In Cairo, Egypt's state-owned media supported North Korea's
nuclear weapons program. The state-owned Al Ahram daily, regarded as the
mouthpiece of the regime in Cairo, said North Korea's nuclear program could
end Israel's nuclear monopoly.
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- Israeli strategists said North Korea's admission of its
nuclear weapons capability is meant to warn the United States that Pyongyang
could export such technology to clients in the Middle East. They said Egypt,
Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria have long sought shortcuts toward nuclear weapons.
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- Steinberg's assessment reflected the concern by Israeli
military sources that North Korea had transferred some of its nuclear weapons
research program to Iran to avoid U.S. detection. The sources said Pyongyang
has offered Iran technology in the enrichment of uranium to produce weapons-grade
fuel.
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- Iran is also said to have obtained technology and expertise
on constructing centrifuges required for the production of weapons-grade
uranium. Several centrifuges are already believed to be operating in Iran.
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- "The existence of North Korea's nuclear program,
or of that of any other such program, could well be the result of the absence
of an international plan to globally eliminate nuclear weapons," Al
Ahram said. "It is the product of the argument allowing certain countries
sole monopoly over the possession of mass destruction weapons, while others
are left completely undefended. A flagrant example here in the Middle East
region is that of Israel, a country with an unfettered access to Western
technology and with a nuclear program which stands to threaten its neighbours."
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- http://216.26.163.62/2002/ea_nkorea_10_29.html
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