Obama put to ‘3am test’ on N Korea launch

Barack Obama had his first “3am moment” (test of presidential mettle) on Sunday when North Korea launched a long-range missile test. In fact, it was 4.30am when aides woke Mr Obama in his Prague hotel suite to break the news and then promptly released a statement condemning the launch.

Other than the interruption to Mr Obama’s first full night’s sleep since he embarked on his frenetic overseas tour last Tuesday, the US president cannot have been unhappy about the timing. Indeed, were it not totally implausible, bystanders could be forgiven for thinking that Kim Jong-Il had graciously scheduled the launch to coincide with Mr Obama’s big speech on nuclear non-proliferation.

The address, which he delivered five hours later to an estimated crowd of 20,000 American flag-waving Czechs, set out the boldest arms control agenda by a US president since Ronald Reagan proposed eliminating nuclear weapons at Reykjavik in 1986. That suggestion, made in a private session with Mikhail Gorbachev, took Mr Reagan’s aides completely by surprise.

In contrast, Mr Obama’s proposal to move to a world free of nuclear weapons was the fruit of many months of preparation and is supported by the likes of Henry Kissinger, the former Republican secretary of state, and Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator.

Linking Mr Kim Jong-Il’s latest brinksmanship to his three-point plan, Mr Obama said: “Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished...The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response.”

Sunday’s speech fleshed out proposals that Mr Obama’s critics will interpret as evidence of the young president’s unworldly idealism, as well as further demonstration that he is biting off more than he can chew. But US officials argue that the speech will bring pragmatic results by improving America’s standing at the United Nations Security Council, where Russia and China have repeatedly baulked at taking tough action against North Korea and Iran.

Mr Obama promised three things. First, he said America would attempt to fulfill its obligations under the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which is widely understood to have enshrined the nuclear weapons status of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council but which also obliged them to work towards their abolition. In effect Mr Obama on Sunday signalled that he understood the perceived double standards of that treaty.

Both Pyongyang and Tehran have frequently cited NPT hypocrisy as justification for their production of nuclear material. North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty. Iran has threatened to do so. “We are trying to seize the moral high ground,” said Gary Samore, the White House co-ordinator for arms control.

Second, Mr Obama promised “immediately and aggressively” to push the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Bill Clinton was unable to get past Capitol Hill in the late 1990s and which George W. Bush declared to be an unacceptable limit on American sovereignty.

Whether Mr Obama has the clout to get this past his former colleagues in the Senate may be secondary to the “moral high ground” he hopes Sunday’s declaration will have earned him at the UN and elsewhere. “After more than five decades of talks, it is time for the testing of nuclear weapons to finally be banned,” he said.

Third, Mr Obama proposed a treaty to ban the production of fissile material that would include nuclear weapons countries that have refused to sign the NPT, including India, Pakistan and Israel. Mr Obama made other proposals, such as the creation of an international nuclear fuel bank to supply civilian material to countries that adhere to the treaty, more resources for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Authority and a stronger effort to “lock down” stray nuclear material that could find its way to terrorist groups.

Many of these could fall by the wayside. Countries such as China and Russia could take umbrage at Mr Obama’s restated commitment to a missile defence system – another echo of Mr Reagan, whose faith in “Star Wars” proved a bridge too far for Mr Gorbachev.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama’s secretary of state and former rival for the Democratic nomination, was on Sunday sleeping in the same Prague hotel as Mr Obama. During the Democratic primaries, Mrs Clinton argued that Mr Obama was too green to be trusted with that “3am phone call” every president must expect.