12 October 2006The Korea TimesPark Song-wu
Late last year, South Korea decided to participate as an observer in U.S.-led exercises, which began by Washington in May 2003 under the name of Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), to stop suspicious arms shipments.
The initiative aims to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems and related materials to and from what the U.S. calls ``rogue states,'' such as Iran and North Korea.
PSI is not a treaty-based approach. There is no formal organization with a budget or headquarters.
Rather, it is a partnership consistent with participants' respective national legal authorities and international law and frameworks to deter, disrupt and prevent WMD proliferation.
Seoul has been hesitant to openly participate in the scheme for fear of upsetting Pyongyang and consequently undermining the inter-Korean reconciliation efforts.
But, reacting to the U.S. request in August last year, the National Security Council's standing committee in Seoul made a decision on Dec. 29 to partially attend the PSI. It notified Washington on Jan. 10.
In addition to dispatching of observers, Seoul has conducted mock interdiction of WMD-related trafficking in South Korea-U.S. military drills and attended U.S. briefings on the results of PSI-related talks.
But Seoul has refused to publicly endorse the PSI or provide assistance for training exercises and operations.
The United States got the idea for PSI when the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1540 in April 2004, which called on all member states to take cooperative action to prevent trafficking in WMD.
As part of U.S. efforts to this end, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13382 in June 2005, authorizing the U.S. government to freeze assets and block transactions of entities and persons engaged in proliferation activities.
``As part of a broad strategy to strengthen our collective capacity to prevent and protect against the threat posed by proliferators from shadowy networks like that led by AQ Khan, President Bush asked countries to join with the United States in launching the Proliferation Security Initiative,'' Robert Joseph, the U.S. undersecretary for arms control and international security, said during a speech in August 2005.
Khan of Pakistan has been charged with delivering key technology and necessary equipment to North Korea for the development of nuclear weapons.
As of September 2006, 77 countries, including France, Russia and Japan, are listed as participants of the U.S.-led initiative, according to the U.S. State Department.
