INTERVIEW-N.Korea sanctions taking their toll-Japan official
02 Nov 2006 06:54:09 GMT Source: Reuters
By Teruaki Ueno TOKYO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - North Korea's leaders are feeling the pinch after a year of U.S. financial sanctions as well as recent international punitive steps imposed after its nuclear test, but whether they'll lose their grip on power is impossible to predict, a top Japanese intelligence official said. Washington announced steps to restrict North Korean access to global financial networks just days after Pyongyang and five other parties to multilateral talks reached a broad agreement on Sept. 19, 2005, aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes. "I believe they (U.S. financial sanctions) are having a considerable effect on North Korea's economy," said Takashi Ohizumi, director-general of the Japanese government's Public Security Intelligence Agency. "The flow of funds into North Korea has been blocked to a great extent," Ohizumi told Reuters in an interview. But Pyongyang may now try to swing its weight as a nuclear power following its Oct. 9 test, so the international community must keep sanctions in place, he added. "The longer each country continues to do what it is doing, the more effective the sanctions will be," he said. U.S. financial sanctions and U.N.-backed punitive measures against North Korea for its nuclear test are gradually hurting leader Kim Jong-il, but Pyongyang may try to take a tough stance following its nuclear test, Ohizumi said. North Korea said on Wednesday it would return to six-party talks on ending its nuclear programmes because Washington had agreed to discuss its financial sanctions. "North Korea may try to negotiate on the premise that it is a nuclear power," he said. "It aims to use nuclear weapons not only as a diplomatic card, but also to secure international recognition as a nuclear power." Pyongyang has come under broader international pressure since Oct. 14, when the U.N. Security Council voted to impose financial and arms sanctions after the reclusive communist state staged its first nuclear test. The U.N. resolution bars trade with North Korea in dangerous weapons, imposes bans on heavy conventional weapons and luxury goods, and asks all nations to freeze funds connected with North Korea's nonconventional arms programmes. NO RIFT BETWEEN KIM AND MILITARY "Kim Jong-il had made it a national policy to possess nuclear arms, and therefore there is no split." Ohizumi, who since January 2004 has been head of the security intelligence agency, a branch of the Ministry of Justice, said Kim's inner circle faced other big problems related to past economic reforms. "The economic reforms implemented in July 2002 were not successful," he said. With its economy on the brink of collapse, North Korea launched piecemeal economic reforms at that time aimed at scrapping a tightly controlled rationing system and introducing market-based prices in a bid to secure foreign capital, raw materials and energy to revitalise its industries. "The gap between rich and poor has been deepening. There are signs in several areas that the public view of the establishment is declining," he said. "This sort of view is gradually spreading across the country," he said, though he added that he could not predict what would happen to North Korea in the immediate future. Since it was founded in the late 1940s, North Korea has kept tight control over the flow of goods, information and travellers from abroad to keep capitalist ideas and values at bay. "With economic reforms under way, goods, people and information come in. That's unavoidable for any country," Ohizumi said. "I believe there has been a gradual rise in the number of people in North Korea who have begun to realise that their country is not an affluent and good place."
