IAEA head: North is nuclear-armed state

Mohamed ElBaradei

South Korean officials yesterday were trying to determine the authenticity of statements attributed to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency saying that North Korea must be considered a nuclear power.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, was quoted by Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) as saying it is “a matter of fact” that North Korea possesses nuclear weapons. “I don’t like to accept any country as a nuclear weapon state. [But] we have to face reality,” ElBaradei reportedly said.

According to the DPA, ElBaradei’s comment came on the sidelines of the International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Energy in Beijing. Last week, IAEA inspectors were asked to leave North Korea as part of the North’s response to the United Nations Security Council’s presidential statement that condemned its April 5 rocket launch. ElBaradei counted the North among nine nuclear powers in the world, according to the DPA.

The United States, Russia, Britain, China and France are officially recognized as nuclear weapons states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India, Pakistan and Israel are the other, non-NPT, nuclear powers.

While Israel has not officially acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons, ElBaradei said in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly in 2004 that he regards Israel as a nuclear state. ElBaradei’s reported view on North Korea stands in contrast to those of South Korea and the United States, which do not consider the North a nuclear power.

Moon Tae-young, spokesman of South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said ElBaradei’s comment “is not worth responding to.” Another high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said he was trying to determine whether ElBaradei’s words had been taken out of context and insisted that the South’s position hasn’t changed.

“We won’t recognize North Korea as a nuclear state, not while we’re still trying to denuclearize the North [through the six-party talks],” the official said.

Last November, a U.S. report titled “Joint Operating Environment 2008: Challenges and Implications for the Future Joint Force,” produced by the U.S. Joint Operation Command under the Defense Department, listed North Korea as one of five nuclear powers in Asia, along with China, India, Pakistan and Russia. After the report was leaked to the media in December, the Defense Department said the report’s mention of North Korea as a nuclear power did not reflect the official U.S. government position.

“As a matter of policy, we do not recognize North Korea as a nuclear state,” the department said.

After the UN Security Council condemned the North Korean rocket launch last week, the North said it would resume its nuclear program and would never take part again in the six-party talks. Those talks involve South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

By Yoo Jee-ho [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]