US allows secret Korea weapons deal

[ck4829]

THREE months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose sanctions on North Korea over the country's nuclear test, Bush Administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea.

According to senior US officials, the US allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopian troops were in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias in Somalia, a campaign that aided the US policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.

US officials said they were still encouraging Ethiopia to wean itself from its long reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment to supply its armed forces and that Ethiopian officials appeared receptive.

But the arms deal is an example of the compromises that result from the clash of two foreign policy absolutes: the Bush Administration's commitment to fighting Islamic radicalism and its effort to starve the North Korean Government of money it could use to build up its nuclear weapons program.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-allows-secret-korea-weapons-deal/2007/04/08/1175970942716.html