Agence France-Presse,
SEOUL: North Korea is unlikely to honour a multinational agreement on giving up its nuclear programme, a former senior US official predicted Friday.
“They'll delay and they'll make small moves toward denuclearisation, but nothing irreversible,” Richard Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush, told a forum in South Korea.
Under the February 13 agreement, the North pledged to disable all nuclear programmes in exchange for one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid and diplomatic benefits.
As a first step, it was supposed to have completed the shutdown and sealing of the Yongbyon reactor and to have invited International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country by April 14.
But it has refused to move until it recovers 25 million dollars which had been frozen in a Macau bank at US instigation. US officials say the funds have now been unblocked but there has been no response from the North.
“North Korea will not live up to their date of stopping activities by (Saturday). They will use the excuse that they haven't actually gone to Macau to pick up their money yet,” Armitage was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.
Armitage, who left the State Department in 2005, said the North would “try to get as much assistance from the United States and the international community as possible” while delaying denuclearisation.
“They are playing a very good game,” he said, adding that the North will keep trying to exploit what it sees as US concessions.
“There is a danger that the United States will be a little hungry for an agreement,” he said. “My government is under such attack generally in the United States and has not many great successes recently in the international community.”
Armitage said the Bush administration may be tempted into a settlement “short of our goals” before next year's presidential election.
“As we get close to our election, it becomes more difficult for the administration to be very flexible on their approach to North Korea,” he said. “At the end of the day, it's very unlikely that (North Korea) will really give up their nuclear weapon.”
