- The United States has secretly agreed a package of measures
aimed at severing North Korea's illicit funding from counterfeiting, drugs
trafficking and missile sales in an attempt to halt the Stalinist regime's
nuclear weapons programme, it was reported yesterday.
-
- The classified measures, referred to as a "tool
kit", were bolted together before last week's announcement by North
Korea that it possesses nuclear weapons. Even before that, United States
intelligence estimated that it had between one and eight warheads.
-
- The American measures included shutting down bank accounts
and shell companies established by the regime of Kim Jong-il, using techniques
honed in the struggle against al-Qa'eda. The funds are believed to be used
to build nuclear weapons.
-
- Officials told the New York Times that the package could
form the core of a sanctions programme should Washington be able to persuade
Japan and China to join an economic attack. Pyongyang has stated that it
views sanctions as an act of war.
-
- While the measures are not seen primarily as a means
to bring about regime change in North Korea, it might have that beneficial
side-effect, the officials said.
-
- President George W Bush was said to have been personally
involved in the new policy. He is known to feel a strong personal distaste
for Kim, pointing out that the North Korean leader has allowed hundreds
of thousands of people to die of starvation.
-
- The Americans are keenly aware that the regime is in
desperate financial straits and will do anything to get easy sources of
cash. For years, the North Koreans have traded anything they could get
their hands on.
-
- But the move is also extremely risky because no one is
quite sure just how unstable Kim is.
-
- United States officials said some of the "tool kit"
policies were already being used. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman,
told the New York Times: "We have been working with our allies and
partners for some time now to stop North Korea's illegal activities, especially
in counterfeiting and narcotics."
-
- He then directly linked North Korea's organised crime
programme to the funding of its nuclear ambitions, saying: "It must
make a strategic decision and eliminate its nuclear weapons programme."
-
- Mr McClellan also made a clear effort to make plain that
America was not planning military action against Pyongyang. "No one
has an interest in attacking North Korea," he said yesterday.
-
- Most analysts rule out any kind of pre-emptive strike
on North Korean nuclear facilities, but the United States would be expected
to fight if the South was attacked.
-
- South Korea has played down last week's nuclear announcement
from the North. The South's unification minister, Chung Dong-young, said
yesterday that it was "too early for us to call the North a nuclear
state" when it had not been independently confirmed. "We should
maintain our policy of reconciliation and co-operation with North Korea
despite fresh uncertainty over its nuclear programme," he said.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main..html
|
