"However we sugarcoat it, if we do something in relation to these North Korean demands, it would amount to rewarding North Korea for their own unreasonableness," said Hyun. "If we allow this, we can expect that many other unreasonable demands may follow."
Because of these problems, some experts said that they favor avoiding the appearance of any direct linkage between a removal of U.S. nuclear warheads from South Korea and a halt in North Korea's nuclear program. Instead, they suggested, the United States and North Korea could each change course on its own, as if each were acting independently of the other.
"There could be a non-deal deal," said Romberg. "As a matter of simple reality, in getting something done that is in the U.S. interest, I would opt for a solution of non-linkage linkage."
U.S. officials said that another obstacle to be overcome is the official U.S. policy of not saying where--or if--nuclear weapons are deployed. The United States cannot announce that it is removing nuclear warheads from South Korea, because it has never officially acknowledged that they are there.
"Our policy is neither to confirm nor deny and that's never going to change," one State Department official said. However, he added, "this issue could be finessed. The South Koreans could say anything they want."
The study in which Gen. Vessey and Sigur participated, carried out by the Committee on U.S.-Republic of Korea Relations, suggested that the South Korean government might simply announce "that there are no nuclear weapons stored on its soil."
One U.S. official suggested that a change in policy on nuclear weapons in South Korea might even be announced when President Roh Tae Woo makes a scheduled visit to Washington next month. But others said that any change would take more time to work out. "This is a very tedious process of moving extremely carefully," said a senior Administration official.
While North Korea was reported Saturday to be ready to agree to international inspection of its nuclear facilities, one Pentagon official says that merely obtaining international inspections of the Yongbyon complex will not be enough to ease U.S. fears about North Korean nuclear weapons.
"They (international inspections and safeguards) are important in their own right, but they do not necessarily mean that there won't be a nuclear weapons program," this Defense Department official said.
The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea. However, since 1989, U.S. and North Korean officials have conducted 16 rounds of talks in Beijing.
