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N.Korea, Iraq: Two 'Axis' States, Two U.S. Policies Sat Dec 7,10:36 PM ET By Paul Eckert SEOUL (Reuters) - A top U.S. diplomat was set to begin a tour of Asia on Sunday for talks on Iraq and North Korea, two of three countries President Bush termed an "axis of evil" for suspicion of having weapons of mass destruction U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's December 8-14 tour of Japan, South Korea, China and Australia underscores contrasting U.S. approaches toward Baghdad and Pyongyang and their suspected arsenals of nuclear and other banned weapons. Iraq's declaration on Saturday denying it has weapons of mass destruction is being analyzed by a skeptical Washington, which has mustered an international coalition and has vowed to force Baghdad to disarm if U.N. inspectors fail to do so. North Korea, which told the United States in October that it was secretly processing uranium for arms, has defiantly asserted its right to wield such weapons in the face of what it sees as nuclear threats from the United States and the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. While U.S.-led pressure builds on Iraq, communist North Korea has been given a fresh chance to meet international demands that it abandon the uranium project, which violates key international non-proliferation treaties. KEDO DEFERS MEETING Diplomatic sources said on Friday the multinational organization in charge of energy projects in North Korea has postponed a high-level meeting until January, delaying a joint decision on how to counter North Korea's nuclear arms programme. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), was set up under a 1994 agreement which promised North Korea fuel oil and nuclear power stations in return for a freeze on a plutonium-based nuclear arms programme. KEDO suspended the oil shipments last month, and the meeting of the allied group would have discussed the future of two light-water reactors now under construction in North Korea. U.S. officials say there will be no "cookie-cutter approach" to states posing seemingly similar menaces. Analysts say North Korea's geographic, political and military circumstances are quite different to those of Iraq. In recent remarks, Armitage said the U.S. saw "fundamental" differences between Iraq and North Korea, with Pyongyang seen as behaving better than Iraq in recent years and is already involved in various levels of talks. NORTH THREAT TO SEOUL Iraq has started several wars in the past two decades and used weapons of mass destruction. North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 to spark war, but "has had a rough equilibrium or stability on the peninsula for about 50 years," Armitage said. Baghdad had continued to have a "well-know affection for terrorism," while following its bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987, "we have not had a North Korea which has been associated with terrorism for some time," he said. Military analysts say while both Iraq and North Korea are politically isolated pariah states, Iraq's military has been hemmed in by allied air supremacy since the Gulf War. North Korea shares a long border with a friendly China that opposes North Korea's nuclear arms, but fears instability and refugees if its neighbor were to collapse. North Korea has nearly two-thirds of its 1.1 million-strong army deployed in an offensive array at its border with South Korea. The Demilitarized Zone is just 30 miles from the South's capital Seoul. "It is not likely that any government in Seoul would agree to even surgical strikes because they could easily trigger a second Korean war," wrote retired Admiral Michael McDevitt of the CNA Corporation, a Washington think tank. |