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North Korea Ups Stakes With Missile Peddling in War of Nerves With Washington
By Hans Greimel
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's latest missile peddling in sub-Saharan Africa underlines some of Washington's worst fears as talks stall on dealing with the communist country's nuclear weapons programs.
Some worry the cash-starved regime could next start selling nuclear arms while Washington holds out for better ground rules for negotiations. With no sign of a breakthrough, each country says time is on its side.
"It's a waiting game, a game of chicken," said Kim Sung-han, a North Korea expert at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, an affiliate of South Korea's Foreign Ministry. "North Korea is trying to coax the United States into negotiations, and the United States says conditions aren't right yet."
Wednesday's revelation that North Korea was discussing a possible deal to share missile technology with Nigeria, a country far from its traditional customer base in the Middle East, ratchets up the tensions.
"North Korea is sending the message that we are already exporting the delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction, so how would you like it if we started exporting nuclear matter as well," Kim said.
South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said Thursday that talk of a Nigerian deal smacked of a power play.
"I see it as a tactic by North Korea to arouse anxiousness from the United States ahead of the second round of six-nation talks," Jeong said at a regular briefing.
The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas have been struggling to reconvene another round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear programs since a first round ended in Beijing in August without much progress.
Voices from inside the United States are increasingly urging Washington to pocket North Korea's offer to freeze its nuclear programs as a first step toward their eventual dismantlement.

Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has accused the Bush administration of dangerous delays. This week, he proposed that the United States offer a nonaggression pact to North Korea to try to stop its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has publicly pledged not to export its nuclear technology. But the North's chief negotiator, Ri Gun, told U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly last April that his country was prepared to test, export or use nuclear weapons, depending on U.S. intentions, according to U.S. officials.
North Korea has since proposed suspending its nuclear programs if Washington lifts sanctions against the communist state, resumes oil shipments, and removes the North from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
The United States says North Korea must first verifiably begin dismantling its nuclear programs before receiving any concessions.
Washington's stance is based partly on the belief that North Korea's crumbling economy can't hang on.
"If the resolution of the nuclear issue is delayed, it's disadvantageous for North Korea in terms of the economy and reactions from neighboring countries and the international community," South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-kil said Thursday.
But a former U.S. State Department official, who visited North Korea's secretive Yongbyon nuclear site on Jan. 8 as part of an unofficial U.S. delegation, derided the notion that the country could collapse because of economic decline.
"Don't wait," Charles Pritchard said. "It's not going to happen."
AP-ES-01-29-04 1400EST
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAHQ9171QD.html
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North Korea offers Nigeria missile deal
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
North Korea has offered to sell Nigeria advanced missile technology, the Nigerian government said yesterday, prompting the United States to warn its African ally that it might face sanctions if it strikes a deal with Pyongyang.
Nigerian officials yesterday issued vague and contradictory statements about their intentions and the missile type on offer, although they acknowledged seeking ballistic-missile technology for "peaceful" purposes.
A sale would mark the first time that such technology has been introduced into sub-Saharan Africa, raising the prospect of a costly new arms race among some of the world's poorest and least-stable nations.
A North Korean delegation "came to us wanting a memorandum of understanding signed with us toward developing missile technology, and training and manufacture of ammunition," a spokesman for Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar was quoted as saying.
The delegation, led by Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, discussed the proposal with Mr. Abubakar during a five-day visit to Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
The spokesman, Onukaba Ojo, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that a memorandum would be signed soon.
The state-run News Agency of Nigeria also said that Mr. Abubakar had "expressed an interest in signing a defense pact with North Korea on the grounds that the Asian country was developed in that area."
That statement did not specify whether the missile sale would be part of the agreement. However, Agence France-Presse quoted Mr. Ojo as saying: "There hasn't been any interest shown on our side."
The United States, which is trying to undercut the North's ability to sell missile and nuclear technology around the world, said that rejecting Pyongyang's pitch would be "the right step" for Nigeria.
"We'd welcome a decision to turn down any such offers from North Korea," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. "We want to stop North Korea's missile activities, and we've gone to many countries to try to encourage them not to buy."
Another State Department official said that a deal could result in sanctions against both seller and buyer.
"The United States is committed to using all available measures, including interdictions and sanctions, when warranted, against North Korea's missile activities and those of its missile customers," the official said.
"The United States will continue to closely monitor missile-related trade involving North Korea and work with other like-minded countries taking steps to address such activities."
The Bush administration, along with 11 allied governments, began an effort last year to intercept illegal arms shipments on the high seas from rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran.
The plan, known as the Proliferation Security Initiative, is aimed at preventing lethal weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists and dictators.
Washington has named North Korea as the world's largest exporter of ballistic missiles. It maintains that the profits from those sales go for developing nuclear-weapons programs.
The two countries are locked in a bitter standoff, which the Bush administration is trying to resolve in six-party talks along with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The North is reported to have shared its technology with Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.
Mr. Ojo insisted yesterday that Nigeria's interest in acquiring missiles does not mean it is pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
"I'm sure that Nigeria is not dreaming of nuclear weapons at all, just missile technology," he was quoted as saying. "If you are acquiring technology for peaceful purpose, I don't think that should make our allies uneasy."
Nigeria, the most populous African nation with 126 million people, is the fifth-largest oil supplier to the United States. It receives substantial military and law-enforcement assistance from Washington.
It also has the strongest military in the region and often plays a leading role in peacekeeping missions, such as the one currently in Liberia.
Despite U.S. concerns about corruption and crime, the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has good relations with the United States, although it is seeking new allies in Asia and other parts of the world.
During a visit to Nigeria last year, President Bush praised Mr. Obasanjo for his leadership on the African continent.
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S. Korea Plays Down North's Missile Deal
By SOO-JEONG LEE
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea played down a North Korean offer to provide missile technology to Nigeria, saying Thursday it was a tactic to gain leverage ahead of a possible second round of talks on the North's nuclear weapons programs.
A Nigerian government spokesman said Wednesday his country had a memorandum of understanding with North Korea to share missile technology, but said no hardware acquisitions had yet been made or decided.
Kim Kisu, second secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Nigeria's capital of Abuja, later said no deal had been closed.
Weapons sales are a major source of revenue for financially strapped North Korea, but it is unusual for one of its clients to publicly talk about a possible deal.
South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said it remained unclear whether Nigeria had accepted the offer, but he didn't think the issue would cause many problems.
"I see it as a tactic by North Korea to arouse anxiety from the United States ahead of the second round of six-nation talks," Jeong said in a regular briefing.
North Korea is known to try to raise stakes ahead of crucial talks to gain leverage.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said her government "noted" Nigeria's assertion that its trade with North Korea is unrelated to nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction.
"We attach importance to this question, and we oppose the proliferation of nuclear weapons and delivery systems," she said. "We have adopted a series of measures including comprehensive export control regulations. Our policy has been clear-cut."
Efforts are under way to reopen a second round of talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis. The first round, involving the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas, ended without much progress in August.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Thursday that diplomats have been working through the Lunar New year holiday and "busily preparing" for the next round of talks, but no date has been set.
"We hope they can take place as soon as possible, so for the past days, weeks, even during Chinese New Year, the officials at all levels have been consulting with relevant parties," the spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said. The one-week New Year holiday ended Wednesday.
Also Thursday, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage was scheduled to arrive in Beijing to discuss bilateral issues with Chinese officials, Zhang said, although she wouldn't confirm that North Korea was on the agenda.
South Korean officials have expressed hope for more talks next month, but Defense Minister Cho Young-kil said Thursday that North Korea was unlikely to "completely" give up its nuclear programs.
"Considering the characteristics of North Korea's regime, chances are slim that North Korea will completely give up its nuclear programs, and many conflicts and difficulties are expected in the process of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue," Cho said.
The nuclear dispute flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials accused North Korea of running the uranium program in violation of a 1994 deal requiring the North to freeze its nuclear facilities. But North Korea has since denied ever having a uranium program.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Five Saudi Police Die Catching Terrorist Suspect, Reuters Says
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Five Saudi Arabian police officers were killed in a gunfight today which ended with the capture of a suspected terrorist in the capital, Riyadh, on the eve of the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage, Reuters reported, citing a Saudi Interior Ministry statement.
The policemen died in a gunbattle in the Faiha residential district in the east of the city, Reuters quoted the statement, read on state television, as saying. The identity of the suspect wasn't immediately known. Some accomplices were taken and arms and grenades were seized, Reuters said, citing the statement.
Saudi security forces are on the alert before tomorrow's start of the Hajj, a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca that able-bodied Muslims are required to make at least once in a life- time. Two weeks ago, the Interior Ministry said police had found 300 explosives belts of a kind used in suicide bombings in a six- month anti-terrorist campaign.
The Saudi government has blamed the al-Qaeda terrorist network for suicide bombings at housing complexes in November and May last year that killed 43 people. Saudi security services arrested more than 200 people on terrorism-related charges after the May attacks.
(Reuters, 1-29)
Last Updated: January 29, 2004 11:54 EST