Rumsfeld link to sale of reactors to North Korea
By Randeep Ramesh
May 10 2003


The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, sat on the board of a company
that three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea -
a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been
targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts of build
nuclear weapons.
Mr Rumsfeld was a non-executive director of ABB, a European engineering
giant based in Zurich, when it won a $US200 million contract to provide the
design and key components for the reactors. He sat on the board from 1990 to
2001, earning $US190,000 a year. He left to join the Bush Administration.
The sale of the nuclear technology was a high-profile contract. ABB's then
chief executive, Goran Lindahl, visited North Korea in 1999.
The company opened an office in the capital Pyongyang, and the deal was
signed a year later in 2000.
Despite this, Mr Rumsfeld's office said the Defence Secretary did not
"recall it being brought before the board at any time". In a statement to
the American magazine Newsweek, his spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, said there
"was no vote on this".

A spokesman for ABB told The Guardian on Thursday that "board members were
informed about the project which would deliver systems and equipment for
light water reactors".
Just months after Mr Rumsfeld took office, President George Bush ended the
policy of engagement and pulled the plug on diplomacy. Pyongyang warned that
it would respond by building nuclear missiles.
By January 2002, the Bush Administration had placed North Korea in the "axis
of evil" alongside Iraq and Iran.
Critics of the Administration's bellicose language on North Korea say the
problem was that Mr Rumsfeld did not "speak up against it".
"One could draw the conclusion that economic and personal interests took
precedent over non-proliferation," said Steve LaMontagne, an analyst with
the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington.
Heavy water reactors produce weapons-grade plutonium. Light water reactors
are known as "proliferation-resistant" but one expert said they were not
"proliferation-proof".
The Guardian

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