The Militant - June 16, 2003 -- G-8 powers threaten north Korea with inspectors, sanctions

Vol. 67/No. 20 June 16, 2003

G-8 powers threaten north Korea
with inspectors, sanctions

BY PATRICK O’NEILL
Meeting June 1-2 in France, the heads of state of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the seven major imperialist powers—resolved to place “arms inspectors” in north Korea if it does not “visibly, verifiably, and irreversibly dismantle” its development of nuclear weapons. They also threatened the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with further restrictions on its exports.

The decision came two weeks after a vote in the U.S. Congress giving the go-ahead to the Pentagon to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, some of which are designed to destroy buried military targets.

One of the devices under development is called the “Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.” It is expressly designed with north Korea’s defensive military emplacements in mind. Up to now, the Pentagon has not been able to develop a conventional bomb powerful enough to destroy such targets.

The resolution adopted by the G-8 meeting in Évian, France, June 2 was part of a White House campaign to win agreement for the imperialists’ right to seize alleged nuclear and military material on the high seas or in the air. A Spanish naval vessel, working under overall U.S. command in the so-called “war on terror,” did just that to a north Korean ship last year off the coast of Yemen. They were forced to release it when the government of Yemen protested, explaining that it had contracted to buy the ship’s cargo.

Leading up to and during the G-8 meeting, Bush met Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Hu Jintao to press the imperialist campaign against Pyongyang. Bush turned down Pyongyang’s proposal for talks with Washington, insisting that representatives from the south Korean and Japanese governments be present, too.

On May 22 Bush and Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, meeting in Texas, repeated allegations that Pyongyang had caused a “nuclear crisis,” and warned of “tougher measures” if it escalates.

“Japan will crack down more rigorously on illegal activities, and the north Koreans will have to understand that threats and intimidations will have no meaning whatsoever,” said Koizumi. His Liberal Democratic Party has threatened to make it harder for Koreans living in Japan to send cash to the north.

Among the “tougher measures” against north Korea under consideration in Washington, reported the New York Times, “is a naval ‘quarantine’ to seize shipments of missiles, drugs and counterfeit money bound from North Korea to foreign markets.”

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