hankyoreh

By Kwon, Tae-ho, Washington correspondent　
In a Feb. meeting in Beijing, Washington and Pyongyang agreed to exchange American food aid for a halt in North Korea’s nuclear program. That agreement is in jeopardy now as North Korea has announced plans to launch a satellite in April. The US is seeking an effective means of responding to the newly complicated situation.
If North Korea does go ahead with the launch, the US is expected to bring the matter before the United National Security Council (UNSC), calling the launch a violation of its resolution. In any event, UNSC resolutions are not binding and are unlikely to exert much pressure on North Korea.
While State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland did previously state that it was “hard to imagine” providing food aid if the launch goes ahead, the country’s position on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring is unclear. Speaking at a briefing Tuesday, Nuland said the US was in discussions with the IAEA over the sending of monitors to North Korea.
The problem is that the Feb. 29 agreement linked the timing for the arrival of US food aid in North Korean ports with that of the IAEA monitors. The aid is supposed to be delivered when the monitors arrive, but the US and overseas public are unlikely to accept this with North Korea declaring its rocket launch plans, leaving Washington in an awkward situation.
Mansfield Foundation executive director Gordon Flake, an expert on Korean affairs based in Washington, told the Hankyoreh that neither the IAEA monitoring nor the food aid is likely to go ahead, and that dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang is unlikely for the time being.
The problem becomes even more complicated if the US makes the first move in dissolving the plans, due to the strong likelihood that North Korea‘s response will go beyond a mere breakdown in the agreement. After previous negotiation breakdowns in 2006 and 2009, Pyongyang proceeded to worsen the situation with nuclear tests, a situation that may well be replayed this time around.
North Korean vice foreign minister Ri Yong-ho said after a recent visit to China that North Korea would “be obliged to respond if our autonomous rights are violated.”
The Washington daily Nelson Report said Monday that Washington had been notified of the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite launch plans in December 2011, just before the death of Kim Jong-il, and that it had warned that this would be considered a violation of the UNSC resolution. The veracity of the report has not yet been confirmed.
In addition, Washington has suspended plans to send a team to North Korea to search for U.S. the remains of US soldiers who died in the North Korean. The plans were cancelled after Pyongyang’s rocket launch announcement, a Pentagon spokesperson said on March 21.
Asked about the planned visit at a news conference, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said, “We have suspended that effort because we believe that North Korea has not acted appropriately in recent days and weeks and that it’s important for them to return to standards of behavior that the international community has called for.” He added that North Korea was aware of the decision and the reason for it.
　　
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]