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Editorial: Clinton and Korea The president confronts a thorny problem on Asian trip Saturday, November 28, 1998
President Clinton's recent trip to Asia was truncated by the crisis with Iraq, requiring Vice President Gore to substitute for the president. When Mr. Clinton picked up his tour, he was reminded that Asia has its own wayward state, the Stalinist North Korea. At least Iraq is subject to an agreement that ended the Gulf War. Officially, the Korean war has not ended; there is only an uncertain truce.
Famine still besets North Korea, adding desperation to its volatile mix of paranoia and ideology. If the North invades the South, which is well within the range of grim possibility, the United States will be immediately involved. Some 37,000 U.S. troops remain as sentinels on the peninsula, and Mr. Clinton took time to visit with some of them. (He also went to Japan and Guam.)
The president praised the troops and warned of the continuing need for vigilance. But he also appealed to the North Koreans not to jeopardize contacts with the South by pursuing a nuclear weap-ons program. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung has promoted a policy of engagement that has paid off with the first tourist visit to the North.
It is the uncertainty over North Korea's nuclear ambitions that threatens to unravel the administration's Korean policy. In 1994, North Korea promised not to build nuclear weapons in exchange for an international group - principally the United States, South Korea and Japan - providing two new light-water reactors and delivering 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil a year.
Republicans in Congress saw the agreement as blackmail and have only grudgingly funded it. Meanwhile, it was discovered that the North Koreans were building a secret mountainside facility that may be a nuclear weapons plant. Pyongyang now says that the site can be inspected for a $300 million fee!
The North Koreans have complained of delays in implementation of the 1994 agreement - with some reason. South Korea and Japan, caught up in the Asian economic downturn, have both balked at paying their agreed share.
The consequence appears to be some foot-dragging, although a State Department official said this week that the United States and its allies are in substantial compliance.
Because North Korea is so reckless, it is tempting to abandon the pact. That would be a mistake, because diplomacy still offers the best chance of success. The United States and its allies should promise that they will scrupulously honor the 1994 agreement as long as the North Koreans do the same. The aim should be to play for time, allowing Mr. Kim's policy of outreach a chance to have an effect.
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