Rumsfeld
calls for regime change in North Korea
By David
Rennie
The Telegraph
23 April, 2003
The classified
discussion paper, circulated by the defence secretary, appears to cut
directly across State Department plans to disarm Kim Jong-il, the North's
dictator, through threats leavened by promises that his regime is not
a target for overthrow.
The paper does
not call for military action against North Korea, but wants the United
States to team up with China in pushing for the collapse of Kim Jong-il's
bankrupt but belligerent regime, the New York Times reported.
In a sign that
Washington is girding itself for a repetition of the bitter rows that
preceded the Iraq conflict, the memorandum was leaked on the same day
that a senior State Department negotiator flew to Beijing for three-way
talks with China and North Korea.
Officials working
for Mr Rumsfeld are implacably opposed to the talks, pointing to North
Korea's long history of extorting aid and concessions in return for
promises - never kept - to behave in a more reasonable way.
Instead, they
seek to use the salutary effect of the rapid victory in Iraq to push
North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons programme immediately.
They also want
to demand weapons inspections across the country. That would be an unthinkable
concession for a Stalinist police state that bars even aid agencies
from a third of its territory.
This raises
the prospect that Washington would be urging inspections for form's
sake and with little hope of success, much as happened in Iraq.
Even before
the American envoy, James Kelly, arrived in Beijing for the talks, there
were signs of new North Korean brinksmanship.
Pyongyang released
conflicting statements last Friday, saying in an English language text
that it had started reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium, a dramatic
step that would place it only months from producing several nuclear
warheads. However, a Korean version of the statement said that Pyongyang
was merely poised to begin reprocessing.
Supporters of
the diplomatic approach attacked the Pentagon proposal as ludicrous.
They said that Beijing, while appalled by North Korea's recent behaviour,
would never join an American-led campaign to topple its communist neighbour.
An unnamed senior
administration official told the New York Times: "The last thing
the Chinese want is a collapse of North Korea that will create a flood
of refugees into China and put Western allies on the Chinese border."
The White House
says that regime change in North Korea is not official policy, despite
the country's inclusion with Iraq and Iran in President George W Bush's
"axis of evil".
Mr Bush has
said that he "loathes" Kim Jong-il, who is believed to have
killed a tenth of his population through starvation and imprisonment
in vast labour camps.
Colin Powell,
the secretary of state, is said to have secured the president's approval
for a carrot and stick approach in a meeting last week. Mr Powell called
for threats to withhold aid and investment from North Korea, while assuring
the regime that it faces no threat from the United States.
Mr Rumsfeld,
who was "distracted" by the war against Saddam Hussein, did
not attend the meeting and may now be trying to regain some traction
in the Korea debate, officials speculated.
Mr Bush, who
appears willing to let his senior aides scrap over policy before taking
a final decision, endorsed Mr Kelly's diplomatic mission at the weekend
and thanked Beijing for hosting the talks.
He said that
China's involvement meant there was "a good chance of convincing
North Korea to abandon her ambitions to develop nuclear arsenals".
The Clinton
administration drew up plans to bomb the main North Korean nuclear site
at Yongbyon. But the generally far more hawkish Bush government has
long contended that talk of military action against North Korea is unrealistic,
given the country's huge conventional arsenals aimed at South Korea.
Instead, conservatives
have advocated letting North Korea "stew in its own juice",
cutting off the overseas aid which sustains the crumbling regime until
it collapses under its own weight.