N. Korea to face similar sanctions as India, Pakistan: Rice
WASHINGTON, Oct 27: The United States will impose similar sanctions against North Korea that it slapped on India and Pakistan after their nuclear tests in 1998, says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The UN-invoked sanctions, in the meantime, should remain in place even if North Korea returns to nuclear negotiations, she said. Such sanctions can only be relaxed if Pyongyang made progress in the talks, she added,
Speaking at the Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation, the secretary specifically referred to the Glenn Amendment of 1994 as steps the US would take in addition to the U.N. sanctions. Also known as the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act (NPPA), the US had used the Glenn Amendment to sanction India and Pakistan after their May 1998 nuclear tests.
North Korea detonated a nuclear device on Oct 9. The Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1718, sanctioning the communist state for the test by freezing its assets related to weapons of mass destruction programmes and banning all arms trades with Pyongyang.
“As for our part, the United States is now obligated to adopt additional sanctions on North Korea under national legislation, including the Glenn Amendment,” Ms Rice said.
The secretary returned from an extensive trip last week to Northeast Asia and Russia, where she tried to drum up support for full implementation of the UN resolution.
The Glenn Amendment allows the US president to apply sanctions when a non-nuclear weapons state detonates a nuclear device.
Sanctions against India included prohibition of activities funded under the foreign assistance act, US government credit and other financial assistance by US agencies.
Foreign military sales and financing were also prohibited, along with export licenses for certain munitions and dual-use goods.
The US also opposed loans and other assistance to India by international institutions.
Some restrictions were already in force at the time of Pakistan’s nuclear test, also conducted in May 1998, and the US added new measures to restrict credit and credit guarantees, limit commercial exports of munitions and dual-use items, and restrict commercial bank lending to the Pakistan government.
A congressional directive prohibited the US from supporting non-basic human-needs lending by international financial institutions.
China and Russia, two veto-wielding members of the Security Council with still-strong ties to North Korea, have argued that UN sanctions should be lifted once North Korea returns to the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
South and North Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan are members of the talks that have not been held since November last year due to Pyongyang’s boycott.
Ms Rice, however, said North Korea’s return was not enough. “We all agreed that if those talks resume, Resolution 1718 would remain in force until North Korea has made progress on denuclearisation,” she said.
The stakes of the game ‘have fundamentally changed, said Ms Rice.
Getting China and South Korea aboard UN sanctions is seen as critical by the United States, as they are the largest aid donors to North Korea. Some of the Seoul-led inter-Korean economic cooperation projects have consequently come under scrutiny.
“We fully understand all of the reasons and all of the impulses that lead to a desire for engagement with the North,” Ms Rice said.
“The only thing that we ask is that everyone remember, including South Korea, that the North Koreans have just set off a nuclear device in South Korea’s backyard.”
