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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win Smith who wrote (52652)	10/17/2002 12:26:20 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Confronted with new American intelligence evidence, North Korean official Kang Suk Ju, after an initial angry denial, is reported to have said, "Your president called us a member of the axis of evil. ... Your troops are deployed on the Korean peninsula. ... Of course, we have a nuclear program." Are the North Koreans bluffing? Just to scare us. Is Iraq bluffing when they say they don't have nuclear weapons. What's Iran's role in this axis. christiansciencemonitor.com posted 10:35 a.m. ET/7:35 a.m. PT, October 17 By Tom Regan \|csmonitor.com Axis A-bomb? North Korea's shocking revelation With shocking candor, North Korea has admitted to the United States it has been developing a nuclear weapons program for the past several years. The revelation effectively nullifies the 1994 agreement barring North Korea from such activity, and establishes a dramatic new front in the Bush administration's confrontation with the "axis of evil" (Iraq, Iran, and North Korea). The admission, CNN reports, came during a high-level US visit to Pyongyang earlier this month. Confronted with new American intelligence evidence, North Korean official Kang Suk Ju, after an initial angry denial, is reported to have said, "Your president called us a member of the axis of evil. ... Your troops are deployed on the Korean peninsula. ... Of course, we have a nuclear program." According to a New York Times report, the North Koreans acknowledged having "more powerful things as well," an apparent reference to other weapons of mass destruction. Stunned US officials say they seek "a peaceful resolution of this situation," and the Bush administration dispatched envoys to the region to consult with allies and call on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to halt nuclear development. US officials remain uncertain whether North Korea's program has been "weaponized," but one intelligence report estimates the country has already produced one or two plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

To: Win Smith who wrote (52652)	10/17/2002 12:26:32 PM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

U.S. Offers U.N. Resolution Deal Thu Oct 17,11:49 AM ET By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Facing strong opposition from dozens of nations, the United States has backed down from its demand that a new U.N. resolution must authorize military force if Baghdad fails to cooperate with weapons inspectors, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday. Instead, the United States is now floating a compromise which would give inspectors a chance to test Iraq's will to cooperate on the ground. If Iraq then failed to disarm, the Bush administration would agree to return to the Security Council for further debate and possibly another resolution authorizing action. The new compromise also drops tough wording explicitly threatening Iraq upfront, although the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a threat of consequences will be implied. The diplomats said France, which has been the main stumbling block for the United States, was studying the new offer amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at solving an impasse among the Security Council powers on Iraq. During an open Security Council debate on Iraq, which started Wednesday and continued Thursday, more than two dozen nations — including Iraq's closest neighbors and key U.S. allies — refused to endorse the Bush administration's demand for an authorization of military force if Baghdad fails to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspections. They said Iraq must be given a chance to completely disarm without the imminent threat of military action. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of Britain, whose country is supporting the U.S. position, said the emphasis was on reaching a deal that all sides could accept. "We're looking for unity in the council," he said. Many U.N. members favor the two-resolution approach proposed by France and backed by Russia and China. Under the French approach, the first resolution would toughen U.N. inspections and warn Iraq that it will face consequences, including the possible use of force, if it doesn't comply with inspections. The second would authorize action against Iraq if it failed to cooperate. "Every possible effort should be made to avert war," Bangladesh's U.N. Ambassador Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told the council on Thursday. In speech after speech, ambassadors from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America called Iraq's decision last month to allow U.N. inspectors to return an important first step — and said the council should send the inspectors back quickly and test Baghdad's commitment. Many warned that a new war would add to the suffering of the Iraqi people, possibly engulf the Middle East in conflict, and have dire consequences on global stability and the world economy. "This war is useless because its motives are not well-founded," Tunisia's U.N. Ambassador Noureddine Mejdoub said Wednesday. "It would unleash a chain of reactions in Iraq and in the region." The council meeting was held at the behest of the Nonaligned Movement, comprising 115 mainly developing countries that favor a peaceful solution in Iraq, and it was open to all 191 U.N. member states. Some 50 nations that aren't on the council took up the opportunity, and they were speaking ahead of the 15 council members who will wrap up the debate on Thursday. Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri was pleased at the opposition to military action and support for the return of inspectors in Wednesday's speeches. He said he expected to hear more of the same on Thursday. Reiterating that Iraq would cooperate with the U.N. inspectors "in every possible way," al-Douri told the council that the United States was attempting "to hamper and delay the return of inspectors" to adopt a new resolution which would serve as "a pretext to cover aggression against Iraq." Since the 1980s, Iraq has gone to war with two of its neighbors — Iran and Kuwait — but neither supported an immediate authorization to use force. Both urged the Iraqi government to strictly comply with all U.N. resolutions to avert war. "Any use of force must be a last resort and within the United Nations (news - web sites) framework and only after all other available means have been exhausted," said Kuwait's Ambassador Mohammad Abulhasan. Several U.S. allies — the European Union (news - web sites), Canada, Australia and New Zealand — backed the U.S. view that after 11 years of failing to comply with U.N. resolutions, Iraq should be given a tough new mandate spelling out that inspectors must have unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites. However, none of the allies called for a new resolution to include a green light for military action. Denmark's U.N. Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Loj, speaking on behalf of the EU, said: "The government of Iraq should make no mistake about the fact that noncompliance with this inspection regime would have serious consequences."

To: Win Smith who wrote (52652)	10/17/2002 1:45:18 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Sort of makes the WMD line of the war marketing effort a little harder to promote So by your reasoning, because North Korea already has nukes, that's a good reason to permit Saddam Hussein to get them too?