Kim Jong-Il to Europeans: Freeze on missile tests until 2003

TOKYO — North Korea has agreed to stop all missile tests until 2003.

Officials said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued the pledge to a visiting European delegation in Pyongyang. The pledge did not rule out a continuation of the moratorium after 2003.

But U.S. officials say proliferation, not testing, is the issue. Pyongyang continues to sell missile technology and components to virtually all of its traditional clients in the Middle East. These include Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria, Middle East Newsline reported.

The commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea, Gen. Thomas Schwartz, told Senate Armed Services Committee in March that North Korea is the "number-one proliferator of missiles in the world." Schwartz told the committee that Pyongyang has sold missiles to Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt.

"Kim Jung Il said that the moratorium on testing would last until 2003," Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said yesterday.

Persson was the first Western European leader to meet Kim Jong Il.

Over the last month, Pyongyang, angry over the administration's review of relations with North Korea, has threatened to resume missile testing.

EU countries have called on the United States to resume its dialogue with Pyongyang.

The Bush administration has been skeptical of North Korean commitments. The CIA has assessed that despite its pledge to Washington, Pyongyang continues to develop nuclear weapons and might have two atomic bombs.

CIA officials also said North Korea continues to test new intermediate- and long-range missiles. Pyongyang's last launch of an intermediate-range missile was that of the Taepo Dong in 1998.