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N Korea nuclear threat stymied recovery of US war remains
Washington, Sept 23: The Bush administration briefly suspended its only avenue of military cooperation with North Korea after the Communist government confirmed to a State Department envoy last fall that it was running a nuclear weapons programme, a senior Pentagon official says.
Washington, Sept 23: The Bush administration briefly suspended its only avenue of military cooperation with North Korea after the Communist government confirmed to a State Department envoy last fall that it was running a nuclear weapons programme, a senior Pentagon official says.
Jerry Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
for POW-MIA affairs, said yesterday that cooperation on
recovering remains of US servicemen lost in the Korean war
was put back on track in June after Defense Secretary Donald
H Rumsfeld decided it did not contradict US policy.
The administration had not previously disclosed that it suspended this programme last fall out of concern by some in the government that continuing it could be seen as a sign of weakness. In an interview in his office yesterday near The Pentagon, Jennings said there was a ``huge battle'' inside the administration over whether the United States should continue working with the North Korean military to find and recover war remains - a programme that began in 1996.
The fight erupted after James Kelly, President George W Bush's top State Department aide for Asia, was told by North Korean officials in Pyongyang last October that they had an active nuclear weapons programme, even though they had agreed in 1994 to dismantle it in exchange for energy aid. ``The word came back'' from Pentagon officials whom Jennings did not identify: ``'Don't talk to the North Koreans.' There was a consensus that developed that we shouldn't have any contact with the North Koreans.''
Bureau Report
The administration had not previously disclosed that it suspended this programme last fall out of concern by some in the government that continuing it could be seen as a sign of weakness. In an interview in his office yesterday near The Pentagon, Jennings said there was a ``huge battle'' inside the administration over whether the United States should continue working with the North Korean military to find and recover war remains - a programme that began in 1996.
The fight erupted after James Kelly, President George W Bush's top State Department aide for Asia, was told by North Korean officials in Pyongyang last October that they had an active nuclear weapons programme, even though they had agreed in 1994 to dismantle it in exchange for energy aid. ``The word came back'' from Pentagon officials whom Jennings did not identify: ``'Don't talk to the North Koreans.' There was a consensus that developed that we shouldn't have any contact with the North Koreans.''
Bureau Report