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WASHINGTON: The top US government official in charge of arms control has resigned at a time when Washington is stepping up efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and rallying global action over Iran's sensitive atomic program.
Robert Joseph, the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, sent a letter to President George W. Bush on Wednesday informing of his decision after six years on the job, the State Department said Thursday.
Considered a hardliner in the Bush administration, Joseph was a key architect of the controversial Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) designed by the United States to combat the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction.
He is among at least half a dozen of senior officials from the State Department who had quit in recent months and nearly all of the jobs had not been filled.
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick resigned in July but his successor, the US intelligence chief John Negroponte, was named only this month.
Negroponte's confirmation hearing at the Senate is expected next week and more nominations to fill other positions are expected in the coming weeks, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, blaming the delay in filling the posts on bureaucracy.
“We are moving forward in filling each of the other remaining positions,” he said.
“The personnel process grinds forward relatively slowly. That's certainly not a slight on people involved in that process, because there are reasons why this process is very careful and methodical. It's the right way to do things,” he said.
