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Uncertainty surrounds N. Korea nuke claim

Tuesday, November 19, 2002 Posted: 6:11 AM HKT (2211 GMT)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il
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1994 agreement

North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program and allow inspections to verify that it did not have the material such weapons would require. The country has yet to allow the inspections.

N. Korea nuclear facts
*
North Korea launched a medium-range "test" missile over Japan in 1998.
* The 1994 Agreed Framework was signed by North Korea with the Clinton administration.
* In return, an international consortium is building new nuclear reactors in North Korea.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration is unsure what to make of Sunday's North Korean radio report in which the announcer seemed to acknowledge that Pyongyang has nuclear weapons.

"There is a mixed story this morning as to whether they are or not acknowledging that they have nuclear weapons," said Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking to student newspaper editors in Washington Monday.

"One change in pronouncement of a single syllable in what their reporter said yesterday makes a difference between having and not having."

South Korean officials say the uncertainty stems from a single spoken word used in Sunday's broadcast on state-run North Korean radio -- a possible linguistic mix-up which could spell the difference between a point of rhetoric and a major shift in the security balance of East Asia.

Pyongyang Radio was first quoted by the South's Yonhap news agency as saying the country "has come to have nuclear and other strong military weapons to deal with increased nuclear threats by the U.S. imperialists."

Though the ethnically homogeneous South and North Koreans share the same language, there are various differences in pronunciation across the Korean peninsula.

The phrase used in the announcement is unclear. "Kajigaedu-oh-itda", which means 'entitled to have' sounds very similar to "kajigaedutta", which means to 'already possess.'

South Korean officials say they are also wary because it is not the way North Korea usually makes such important statements.

Analysts say Pyongyang could have intentionally broadcast this message -- whether it is true or not -- in an attempt to gauge the extent of international reaction to such news.

"They are banking on the fact that the U.S., South Korea and Japan will ultimately come around and offer them new incentives to resolve the weapons of mass destruction issue," said Lee Chung-min, Associate Professor of International Relations at Yonsei University.

North Korean officials repeated in a newspaper interview published Monday their country's right to have nuclear weapons and other weapons "more powerful than that" to defend itself.

The responses did not address whether North Korea actually has a nuclear weapon, but said because of an "ever-growing" nuclear threat from the United States it would be "naive" to think "the DPRK would sit idle under such a situation."

The comments, printed in Cambodia Daily, came from interview questions submitted last month to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

North Korea's ambassador to Cambodia, Kim Hong Nam, answered the questions himself and provided them to the newspaper's publisher last week.

Since last month, when the North admitted to having an active nuclear weapons program, diplomatic channels have been working overtime to clarify the issue and to reach a peaceful conclusion.

Zero tolerance

Last week, the international consortium -- consisting of the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union -- charged with implementing the 1994 agreement with North Korea agreed to suspend fuel oil deliveries to the Communist nation because of the nuclear revelation.

The North has also threatened Tokyo that it could resume tests of its long-range missiles, if Japan develops a missile defense shield with the United States.

U.S. administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have said Washington believes Pyongyang has enough plutonium to make one or two weapons, but it does not know whether North Korea has enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

It was unclear whether the weapons referred to in the North Korean broadcast -- if they exist -- are based on a plutonium or uranium core.

Washington has made it clear its current zero tolerance for any country trying to produce such weapons of mass destruction.

-- CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel and producer Elise Labott contributed to this report

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