April 26, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1429

WASHINGTON: US claims that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor may wreck a six-party deal under which the hardline communist state agreed to end its nuclear weapons drive, experts said.

Although Washington has made clear that the diplomatic initiative will continue, the serious accusation levelled against North Korea would require President George W. Bush’s administration to impose such high verification standards on denuclearisation efforts that Pyongyang may just walk away from the deal, according to the experts.

“I suspect what will happen is they will hold the North Koreans to a very high verification standard because they realize what a hard sell this is to Congress and that the North Koreans probably won’t be able to do,” said Michael Green, a top Asia hand in the first Bush administration.

“We can’t simply say that it won’t happen again and that’s good enough, because the North Koreans have violated some significant proliferation red lines, and if there isn’t some consequence for that, they are likely to do it again,” he said.

Japan warned on Friday that the US allegations, if proven, would be a blow to the stalled deal on ending the communist state’s nuclear drive.

“If North Korea supported Syria’s nuclear activities, it would be a big problem,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said in Tokyo.

“It is extremely regrettable” if North Korea transferred nuclear technology to Syria, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said separately.

The six-nation talks group the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.

Chief US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the allegations were just one more issue to be addressed by the group.

“It is the judgment of the United States that there is not an ongoing cooperation with Syria in this area,” Hill told reporters in New Haven, Connecticut Thursday, according to footage broadcast in Japan.

“We will deal with this issue as we do with many other issues in the six parties.” Lawmakers were fuming on Thursday when White House and CIA officials briefed key Congressional panels, seven months after the Syrian nuclear reactor was effectively destroyed in September by a mysterious Israeli air strike.

“If they do reach some kind of an agreement with the six-party talks, it will be much harder for them to go through the Congress and get these agreements approved,” said Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House of Representatives intelligence committee.

Despite months of extensive publicity about the North Korean-Syrian nuclear links, the Bush administration had refused to officially confirm them.

It only spilled the beans under pressure from Congress, which threatened to withhold funding for the nuclear deal, in which North Korea was promised energy aid, diplomatic and security guarantees in return for denuclearisation.

Senior administration officials said the delay initially was to avoid a Syrian retaliation that could trigger a war in volatile Middle East. But that threat, they claim, is believed to have receded and the disclosure now could help pressure North Korea to come clean on its nuclear proliferation.

“The revelation about North Korea assisting Syria following seven months of stonewalling by the Bush administration is a serious body blow to the six-party talks,” said Bruce Klinger, an ex-US intelligence official in charge of Korean issues.“Whether it going to be a knock out punch to the six-party talks or not we don’t know yet.” Questions are now being asked whether the United States has given North Korea too much of a pass on its proliferation activities and is getting too little in terms of disablement of key nuclear facilities and a declaration of its nuclear record in exchange for any sanctions lifting.

“The evidence against North Korea is so specific and could potentially be very damning and put negotiations with it completely on hold,” said Sharon Squassoni, a former non-proliferation expert at the State Department.

She and several other experts suspect the timing of intelligence information underscoring North Korea-Syrian nuclear cooperation could have been politically motivated, suggesting a rift within the Bush administration.

Among those reportedly against the deal is Vice-President Dick Cheney, who some say leads a neo-conservative push for the hardline and impoverished North Korea to collapse under the weight of its economic problems.—AFP