Washington double-talk on nukes

The United States needs a consistent position on nonproliferation if its efforts to lower the nuclear weapons threat is to be taken seriously.

The last two weeks prove the point.

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India announced the successful launch of a long range missile April 19, capable of hitting Beijing and Shanghai in China. Some in the region fear the Agni-V test could fuel a new regional arms race.

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North Korea launches rocket, defying protests: North Korea made a failed attempt to launch a long-range rocket, which many viewed as a cover for a long-range missile test.

On Thursday, India successfully tested what it called its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the Agni V. Since it traveled only 3,000 miles, the missile would be considered an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) in U.S. terminology. ICBMs travel 6,000 miles or more. Nonetheless, the Agnni V would enable India to strike inside most of China.

On Saturday, however, A. Sivathanu Pillai, an official with India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, told reporters that the Agni V had not been tested at its full range and could reach targets in Europe, 4,800 miles away.

The White House’s initial response to the test shot was equivocal at best. “We urge all nuclear-capable states to exercise restraint regarding nuclear and missile capabilities, and continue to discourage actions that might destabilize the South Asia region,” press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

The Chinese news media had already asserted that “Western powers were not condemnatory enough” of the Indian missile test. Carney’s statement didn’t hint at any criticism of New Delhi for pushing out the range of its ballistic missiles, which was in sharp contrast to the repeated U.S. condemnation of North Korea for trying on April 13 to use a multi-stage rocket to launch a satellite. Pyongyang was using the satellite launch, which failed minutes into flight, to hide its development of an ICBM, the United States argued.

Faced with that comparison, Carney explained, “I would simply point out, because comparisons have been made to [North Korea] and its actions, that India’s record stands in stark contrast to that of North Korea, which has been subject to numerous sanctions, as you know, by the United Nations Security Council.”

Before I focus on the somewhat hypocritical foundation of that statement, it is worth noting last week’s other U.S. action that illustrates the ambiguities other countries see in Washington’s nonproliferation approach.

On April 15, during its parade in Pyongyang marking the 100th anniversary of the late Kim Il Sung’s birthday, North Korea showed off what appeared to be six mobile ICBMs. Last June, then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that North Korea was trying to develop an ICBM that was “potentially a road-mobile” missile. Some 17 days later, in a Newsweek interview, Gates said, “They are developing a road-mobile ICBM. I never would have dreamed they would go to a road-mobile before testing a static ICBM.”

Yet last week, some analysts studying the pictures of those parading missiles on large trucks concluded that they were not real. “At first glance, the missile seems capable of covering a range of perhaps 10,000 kilometers [6,000 miles]. However, a closer look reveals that all of the presented missiles are mock-ups,” wrote Markus Schiller and Robert H. Schmucker, analysts with Schmucker Technologie in Germany and leading experts on North Korean missiles.