Obama urged not to overreact to N. Korean rocket, to revive missile talks

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Yonhap) -- The Barack Obama administration was urged Monday to refrain from trying to intercept a North Korean rocket scheduled for launch in early April due to fears over its negative impact on the six-party nuclear talks.

Frank Jannuzi, professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, also recommended that the Obama administration revive the missile
talks with North Korea suspended under the Bill Clinton administration.
"Overreaction would be shooting down the missile, taking out the missile from the
launch pad, suspending and terminating the six party talks," Jannuzi told a
seminar at the Heritage Foundation.
North Korea has said it will launch a rocket in early April to put a satellite
into orbit as part of its space program, and threatened that any rocket
interception will trigger a war.
U.S. and Japanese officials have talked about a possible shooting down of any
North Korean rocket despite skepticism over their capability to do that, saying
the rocket has dual use for launching either a satellite or a ballistic missile
capable or hitting the continental U.S.
Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, said last week that
North Korea has been deploying new intermediate-range ballistic missiles capable
of hitting Alaska.
Jannuzi, who served as a key foreign policy adviser for the Obama camp, urged the
administration to revive the missile talks.
"North Korea may be aiming to revive the negotiations stalled at the end of the
Clinton administration," he said. "Some may recall North Korea was aiming for
US$1 billion in annual payment in return for ending its missile exports and
aiming (for) expansion of the six-party talks to include the missile program."
North Korea is said to be a major provider of missiles and missile parts to
Syria, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries.
"If North Korea would not deploy, would not export, would not produce long range
missiles, it's cheaper than keeping an aircraft carrier to shoot it down, cheaper
than keeping national missile defense in Alaska," the congressional staff member
of the majority party said.
Jannuzi was talking about the aborted missile talks in the late 1990s under the
Clinton administration in which North Korea demanded that the U.S. provide up to
US$1 billion annually in return for the North refraining from exporting its
missile and parts.
The missile talks followed North Korea's launch of its first Taepodong ballistic
missile over Japan in 1998, which shocked the Clinton administration when the
rocket's debris fell into seas off Alaska.
The missile talks did not produce results, as Clinton withdrew his promise to
visit Pyongyang to conclude the missile and nuclear talks in the waning months of
his presidency in 2000, citing a lack of time.
Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, did not honor any agreements with North
Korea, which he designated part of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month talked about the "need
to have a conversation about missiles" with North Korea.
It is not clear at the moment whether China and Russia will join any effort by
the U.S. and its allies to further sanction North Korea for its rocket launch, as
interpretations differ over the terms of a U.N. resolution.
The resolution, adopted in 2006 after North Korea's second Taepodong ballistic
missile launch, bans North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile
activities.
Jannuzi noted that "the U.S. measured application of sanctions have failed," in
an apparent reference to China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, which
significantly toned down the sanctions of the resolution to give leeway to U.N.
member states.
He said that Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea, will
likely engage North Korea at a higher level while continuing the six-party talks.