I wonder if GWB ever wishes he had handled N.Korea differently?
....snippets
"Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the U.S."
"Pre-emptive attacks on North Korea (news - web
sites)'s nuclear facilities would trigger a "total war," the communist state
warned Thursday after U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
labeled the North's government a "terrorist regime." "
Full text:
N. Korea Warns U.S. on Pre-emptive Moves
Thu Feb 6, 4:58 AM ET
By SANG-HUN CHOE, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea - Pre-emptive attacks on North Korea (news - web
sites)'s nuclear facilities would trigger a "total war," the communist state
warned Thursday after U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
labeled the North's government a "terrorist regime."
The harsh rhetoric came a day after North Korea
said it was putting the operation of its nuclear
facilities on a "normal footing," triggering fears it
was about to produce weapons materials.
"When the U.S. makes a surprise attack on our
peaceful facilities, it will spark off a total war," the
state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a
commentary carried by North Korea's official news
agency, KCNA.
Ri Pyong Gap, a spokesman and deputy director
at the North's Foreign Ministry, told The
London-based Guardian newspaper that the
impoverished country was entitled to launch a
pre-emptive strike against the United States.
"The United States says that after Iraq, we are
next," the paper quoted Ri as saying, "but we
have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive
attacks are not the exclusive right of the U.S."
It's customary of the North to launch saber-rattling
invectives against Washington when it has a
dispute to settle.
Although Washington has repeatedly denied it
plans to invade North Korea, Rumsfeld said restarting the nuclear program
would give the North a troubling option — making nuclear weapons for itself
or selling them to any other country.
"That is something the world has to take very seriously," he said late
Wednesday. "It's a regime that is a terrorist regime. It's a regime that has
been involved in things that are harmful to other countries."
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said late Wednesday that his
government "is now putting the operation of its nuclear facilities for the
production of electricity on a normal footing after their restart."
The statement left it unclear how far North Korea has proceeded in
reactivating its nuclear facilities, which include a 5-megawatt nuclear
reactor, a storage building for 8,000 spent fuel rods and a plant where those
rods could be reprocessed to yield enough plutonium for four or five bombs
in a matter of months.
Last week, U.S. officials said spy satellites detected covered trucks
apparently taking on cargo near the storage building. Experts were divided
over whether North Korea was removing the rods for reprocessing or just
pretending to do so in a bluff to escalate tensions.
The latest North Korean statement left officials wondering whether North
Korea was trying to take advantage of Washington's preoccupation with Iraq
to ratchet up pressure in its own standoff with the United States.
North Korea said in December that it was reactivating its facilities to
generate badly needed electricity. But U.S. officials say the amount of
electricity that can be produced in the Yongbyon facilities is negligible.
The most immediate step the North could take is likely to be restarting the
5-megawatt reactor, which can produce more spent fuel rods, South Korean
officials said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear
monitoring agency, said it couldn't confirm any new nuclear activities
because its inspectors were sent out of the country in December.
"We are trying various channels to confirm what it means," said an official at
the South Korean Foreign Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"At this moment, we have no information to confirm that North Korea has
reactivated its nuclear facilities, that is the reactor and other key facilities."
Even as it presses toward war with Iraq, the United States has insisted it
wants a peaceful solution in the standoff with North Korea.
President Bush (news - web sites) "keeps all of his options open," National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said in a television
interview. "But he happens to believe that this is a situation with North Korea
that can be resolved diplomatically."
Analysts say North Korea, which often accuses the United States of plotting
to invade it, is fearful that Washington would turn up pressure on the
isolated communist nation if the U.S. military wins a war with Iraq.
The North froze its nuclear facilities in a 1994 energy deal with the United
States, but the deal unraveled after U.S. officials said in October that North
Korea had admitted embarking on a second, clandestine nuclear program.
Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments as punishment. The
North then took steps to restart the nuclear facilities, expelled U.N. monitors
and withdrew from a global nuclear arms control treaty.
U.S. officials say they suspect the nuclear facilities were used to extract
enough weapons-grade plutonium for one or two weapons before they were
frozen.
The U.N. nuclear agency's 35-nation board of governors will meet next
Wednesday to discuss the standoff and is almost certain to send the
dispute to the U.N. Security Council — a move that could lead to economic
sanctions against Pyongyang.
story.news.yahoo.com |
