Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Wednesday that he will begin calling his counterparts in France, Britain and Germany to strategize on Iran ahead of the IAEA meeting.
"This could not have come at a worse time for the Bush administration's efforts on both Iran and North Korea," said Jon Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Iran is going to say the U.S. is giving an ally a free pass, while the North Koreans are going to accuse the U.S. and the South of hypocrisy and warmongering."
A U.S. official involved in setting North Korea policy expressed concern that North Korea would use the revelations to its advantage and negatively affect six-party talks among the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea aimed at defusing a crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
After months of tensions between the United States and North Korea, Pyongyang threw out IAEA inspectors in December 2002 and walked away from the treaty shortly afterward, a move that heightened suspicions the country was continuing to develop nuclear capability.
The United States helped persuade South Korea to give up a secret weapons program in the 1970s, and over the years has discouraged it from buying materials that could have nuclear weapons applications.
Seoul's disclosure was made in a written declaration detailing its compliance with the nonproliferation treaty.
Daryl G. Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association, said the South Korean experiment "underscores the value and need for better international verification. This needs to be the universal standard that all states have to live by," he said.
Special correspondent Cho reported from Seoul.
