North Korea

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali's visit to North Korea should reinforce the message that Security Council action will come next year if the Pyongyang regime continues to rebuff international inspection of its nuclear facilities. American officials, who have had their differences with the United Nations leader, are less than enthusiastic about his entry into these intricate negotiations. But since this enhances Mr. Boutros Ghali's image of independence, it may strengthen his hand in his talks with the North Koreans.

From both sides of the Pacific, from Seoul and Washington, comes word that patience with North Korea is wearing thin. The latest maneuver by that Stalinist regime has been to thwart inspection of its suspected nuclear weapons program by agents of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- this despite undertakings that seven of nine locations would be open. If the IAEA reports to the United Nations Monday that Pyongyang is once again in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States should seek a Security Council demand for compliance by a specific date or North Korea will face the consequences.

BECAUSE North Korea is a closed society, a visitor would have little or no chance of determining whether it possesses an atomic bomb. But there is another country that may know just how capable North Korea is of producing one -- Russia.The Soviet Union played the decisive role in the development of North Korea's nuclear industry. Moscow provided and put into operation, in 1965, North Korea's first two-megawatt reactor; it trained more than 60 nuclear experts to service the reactor. When Pyongyang wanted to upgrade it, Russians assisted.

No nation has been more troublesome and devious in negotiations for the past four decades than North Korea. It is against this background that we must evaluate the most recent agreement over the dismantling of its potential to make nuclear weapons. The agreement -- it's not quite a formal treaty -- is another small step forward. If it is implemented as expected, it will reduce considerably the threat of nuclear proliferation. Nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea's hyper-jingoistic leadership would be a frightening prospect.

North Korea's behavior leading up to the welcome release of captured Army pilot Bobby Hall reflects a massive inferiority complex that must be constantly propitiated by bellicose posturing toward the big, bad Americans. Though it is a pathetic rump country saddled with a failed economy and a discredited Stalinist ideology, North Korea's singled-minded devotion to the accumulation of out-sized military power cannot be ignored.Its hostility toward South Korea unleashed the 1950-53 war that caused 137,000 U.S. dead and wounded.

WASHINGTON --The historic meeting last week between President Clinton and Jo Myong Nok, North Korea's number two leader, is the most dramatic sign that Pyongyang has come out of its shell. It is also a painful reminder of how little is known of its motives and intentions. Where are Mr. Clinton and his advisers to turn for help in sorting out the implications of North Korea's policy reversal? Can they expect enlightenment from a Defense Department bent on investing billions to defend against North Korean missiles of the future?

Washington. -- Prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons has always seemed like a lofty goal. But it has been a goal pursued largely by powerful nations with nuclear weapons against perceived enemies -- especially weak enemies.It was unthinkable that the U.S. might use force or anything else to keep Great Britain and France from joining the nuclear club. Nothing could be done to stop the Soviet Union from becoming an awesome nuclear power, and China was just too huge and powerful in terms of conventional arms for U.S. politicians to do more than wring their hands when it became obvious that the People's Republic was becoming a nuclear power.

Washington. -- Kim Il Sung, the aged North Korean dictator, has come a long way in seemingly opening his nuclear works to foreign inspection. Still, nobody is yet sure whether Pyongyang has abandoned a nuclear-weapons program or is engaged in a massive deception. In the U.S. government, there is a strong view that the North Koreans may well be cheating. This view was not, apparently, dispelled by the results so far known of an inspection just carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency.