U.S. still shipping oil to N. Korea despite its nuclear program

WASHINGTON -- Despite tough rhetoric, the Bush administration has yet to suspend free shipments of oil to North Korea that were provided for under a 1994 agreement.

Officials are concerned that an abrupt cancellation could prompt Pyongyang to renege on other aspects of the agreement, possibly triggering a full blown crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

A month ago, North Korean officials acknowledged to visiting U.S. diplomats that it had a uranium enrichment program to develop nuclear weapons, a violation of the 1994 U.S.-North Korean agreement.

The Bush administration has been demanding "immediate and visible" dismantling of the program. It also has been consulting with China, Japan, South Korea and other key countries on how to pressure North Korea.

But the administration has made no move to suspend the 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil the United States has been sending to North Korea annually as part of the 1994 agreement.

While not ruling out a suspension at some point, the administration is looking for ways to salvage provisions of the agreement that it considers important for national security.

The administration is eager for the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue its supervision of most of Pyongyang's plutonium resources, consistent with the 1994 agreement.

The CIA believes that North Korea has used plutonium not under IAEA control to develop at least one nuclear weapon. Pyongyang presumably could develop more if it expelled the IAEA monitors.

A difficult choice

Some officials worry that North Korea would view a U.S. suspension of oil shipments as a provocation, and would respond by seizing control of the plutonium from the IAEA.

But others say they doubt the North Koreans would take such action out of fear of an aggressive U.S. response.

"They may be right, they may be wrong," says Robert Einhorn, a former State Department Korea hand and weapons expert. He said the administration faces a difficult choice as it contemplates whether to proceed with next month's scheduled oil shipment.

The oil deliveries were part of a broader package of energy assistance approved in 1994.