Bush volte-face on N Korea

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Friday that US President George W. Bush had told him he would consider dropping North Kore...

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Friday that US President George W. Bush had told him he would consider dropping North Korea from his ‘‘axis of evil’’ trio and reopening dialogue with the reclusive communist state.

Koizumi, recording an interview to be aired on Japanese television on Sunday, said he had proposed the North Korean move in a telephone call to Bush on Thursday night and that Bush had replied he would seriously consider doing this.

Bush has linked North Korea with Iraq and Iran in an ‘‘axis of evil’’ he says threatens the world with weapons of mass destruction.

Story continues below this ad

Koizumi was briefing Bush on his landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il on Tuesday, at which Kim promised to extend a moratorium on missile tests and honour pledges concerning Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Washington is currently pondering whether to send its own senior envoy to North Korea to reopen talks, and US officials had been watching Koizumi’s Pyongyang summit for clues as to whether Kim was really ready to open up his isolated nation.

Koizumi also said that Japan would never allow any economic aid that it gave to North Korea to be used to make weapons of mass destruction.

Kim and Koizumi agreed on Tuesday that the two nations would resume talks on establishing diplomatic ties in October and that economic aid for the battered North Korean economy would be worked out as part of that process. Analysts have said Japan could ultimate give its former colony as much as $10 billion in aid.

Story continues below this ad

Koizumi said on Thursday that Kim had agreed at the summit to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors into the country to examine its nuclear programme.

Kim Jong-Il had reassured Koizumi in talks on Tuesday that Pyongyang would honour all its international pledges concerning its nuclear programme, but Koizumi’s comments were the first public confirmation that the pledge included IAEA inspections.

Some analysts believe North Korea could be using its nuclear energy programme to develop nuclear weapons.

Iraq agreed last week to allow in nuclear inspectors, a move that may have put pressure on North Korea to do the same. No firm date has been set for the start of the Iraqi inspections.

Story continues below this ad

A 1994 US North Korean deal froze the North’s suspected nuclear weapons programme in exchange for two western-financed nuclear reactors and annual supplies of fuel oil.

Under that agreement, Pyongyang undertook to allow in IAEA inspectors, but it has yet to do so. (Reuters)