Ex-Bush aide defends delisting as small gain despite loophole

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. expert on Korea Wednesday defended the Bush administration's taking North Korea off its terrorism blacklist as a "small gain" despite criticism of a loophole that may block inspectors' access to the North's undeclared nuclear sites.

"I think it's a small gain by the Bush administration, but it's an important
gain, because the next administration, whether it's John McCain or Barack Obama,
they can pick up the process where it is," Victor Cha, director of Asian Studies
at Georgetown University, said in a lecture.
The former White House aide under the Bush administration added, "If it's a
full-blown crisis, that is not the good place for the next administration to
start."
Cha was rebuffing criticism that the clause on access to undeclared sites being
by "mutual consent" may mean no access to undeclared sites that might have
uranium-based nuclear facilities, one of the contentious points in the
verification issue, along with suspected nuclear proliferation.
After turbulent weeks of expelling international inspectors from its nuclear site
in Yongbyon and reversing disabling of its nuclear facilities, North Korea
Saturday agreed to a verification plan for its nuclear facilities in return for
Washington's much-delayed delisting.
Hardliners contend the Bush administration surrendered to North Korea in hope of
achieving its only diplomatic victory as it deals with difficulties in Iraq, Iran
and Afghanistan at the end of its eight-year tenure.
Proponents say the deal should not be seen as surrender, but as an accomplishment
that prevents North Korea from producing more plutonium for nuclear warheads,
aside from up to 50 kilograms of plutonium it is believed to have already. That
amount is enough to produce several warheads.
Cha said he did not agree with the assessment that Bush allowed North Korea to
produce more nuclear bombs during his eight years in office, noting that nobody
can prove North Korea has several nuclear bombs by now or, if it actually has,
when it made them.
He defended the Bush administration's withdrawal from the Geneva agreement of
1994, which froze North Korea's Yonbyon facilities in return for energy aid,
saying the North was involved in a highly-enriched-uranium-based program in
violation of the agreement.
"What happened in 2002 was there was evidence North Korea was involved in other
activities in violation of the core of the agreement in 1994," he said. "It would
be difficult for any administration to continue to go back to Congress to certify
everything was operating properly and authorize heavy fuel shipment while you
have evidence there is a violation of the core of the agreement."
He predicted North Korea will continue its tactics with the next U.S.
administration, which will launch in January,
"Would they blackmail again in the future? Sure," he said. "They will try to do
these things again. But this time it's easier because Yongbyon was disabled"
Unlike 2002, when Yongbyon was just frozen, he said, "it's beyond freeze, and
permanent verifiable disablement."
"Whichever administration comes in, there is a verification agreement and
inspectors on the ground. That's gonna be a good place for the next
administration to start," he said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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