“We had urged [North Korea] to desist from introducing nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula,” Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.
“It is regrettable that [North Korea] chose to ignore the advice by the international community not to conduct the test.”
Ms Aslam has also defended Pakistan’s own nuclear record.
“Pakistan did not initiate nuclear tests in the region. We were acting purely in self-defence,” she said.
Pakistan’s claims here are almost laughable considering its own involvement in North Korea’s nuclear program. Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s nuclear network provided North Korean scientists detailed nuclear information in the 1990s which undoubtedly helped speed the global community into this current crisis. While Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf assures the international community that Khan remains under house arrest, he continues to disallow IAEA officials the luxury of questioning Khan about his nuclear dealings. The excuse Musharaff hides behind is that allowing Khan to become the center of international scrutiny would lead to massive upheaval and, perhaps, the collapse of the current, arguably secular Pakistani government. A more adequate explanation may be that high ranking Pakistani officials inside the military-governmental complex may be concerned with their own implication in any information attained from Khan.
Interesting friends the US keeps, to be sure. The sad part is the current governmental configuration in Islamabad may be the least damaging one for US interests at the current time. That’s not to say that it has not caused damage, but that’s another topic for another post when I have more time/energy.
technorati tags:north-korea, japan, china, wmd, nukes, south-korea
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2 Responses to 'Pakistan… Lectures North Korea?'
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on October 9th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Unfortunately, ‘hypocrisy’ is a concept that can only be applied in intercourse or comparisons between and amongst PEERS. That cannot be the case where the western powers deem themselves to be the sole arbiters of whom are endowed with the ‘divine/western mandate’ to arm themselves in ways that ‘lesser others’ may not. Pakistan is, therefore, not a ‘hypocrite’ as it has been annointed by the west in recent times as a prelate worthy of adorning the red cap.
on October 9th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
I understand where you’re coming from, Inquisitor, and I also understand that North Korea sees nuclear arms as a requirement for its self-defense. The “hypocrisy” I mentioned pertains to Pakistan lecturing North Korea on nuclear weapons when it was AQ Khan and perhaps Pakistani governmental/military leaders who helped North Korea achieve its nuclear capability to begin with.