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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (338134)	1/5/2003 5:56:10 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Diplomatic Drive on N.Korea Crisis Gathers Pace ago URL:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&ncid=71... By Maria Golovnina and Vicki Allen MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A diplomatic initiative to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis gained pace on Sunday with Moscow seen pledging to use its influence with the communist state and Japanese and South Korean officials due to discuss the issue in Washington. AP Photo Slideshow: North And South Korea Seoul Steps in to Mediate North Korean Nuclear Crisis (AP Video) Diplomatic Solution Sought In Korean Crisis (Reuters Video) The worsening war of words between Washington and Pyongyang prompted South Korea (news - web sites) to announce that a top presidential security aide would fly to the U.S. capital and Tokyo this week as part of Seoul's efforts to resolve the issue. In Washington, Democrats attacked President Bush (news - web sites)'s handling of the nuclear confrontation as erratic and a failure and urged him to open talks with Pyongyang. Tension has risen since North Korea (news - web sites) expelled U.N. inspectors and reopened a nuclear reactor mothballed under a 1994 deal in which it had agreed to end such work in exchange for fuel oil from the United States and its allies. Washington cut off oil supplies to North Korea after Pyongyang said last October it had a covert nuclear program. "Russia's cooperation to solve this problem peacefully is essential. The Russians said they would try their best to use their channel to North Korea," South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung said after talks in Moscow with senior Russian officials, including the Foreign Ministry's top Asia expert, Alexander Losyukov. "North Korea should renounce its nuclear program and return to the situation as it was before the beginning of October," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Kim as saying. "That move could pave the way for the resumption of dialogue with the United States." 'EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS' Russia has condemned "emotional outbursts" against Pyongyang -- a clear jibe at the United States. But it is the only member of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations with good ties to both North and South Korea, and Seoul hopes Moscow will be able to find a way out of the crisis. CNN quoted Georgy Mamedov, deputy Russian foreign minister, as saying he was optimistic about resolving the stand-off. "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said. Mamedov said a tough line on North Korea's nuclear program by the international community and the possibility of political dialogue gave grounds for optimism. "I was greatly encouraged by the recent statement by the president of the United States who said it's a political and diplomatic problem not a military one," Mamedov said in an interview with CNN. Kim is thought to have brought to Moscow a plan under which Washington would guarantee the security of communist North Korea which in return would scrap its nuclear weapons program. A Russian diplomatic source quoted by Interfax said one option examined by Russian and Korean officials was "the idea of multilateral security guarantees for North Korea in exchange for compromise from Pyongyang in the nuclear field." In Seoul, officials said Yim Sung-joon, presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security, would travel to Washington from Tuesday to discuss the North Korean crisis with his counterpart, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), and other top U.S. officials, and visit Tokyo on Friday and Saturday. LATEST PROPOSALS Another South Korean delegation is due to present Seoul's latest proposals at talks in Washington on Monday with the United States and Japan ahead of a visit to Seoul by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly next week. Democrats, who will be a minority in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives when the 108th Congress begins on Tuesday, urged Bush to seriously consider the South Korea proposal, in which the United States would pledge not to attack North Korea if it abandoned its nuclear weapons program. "We don't know what the details of the plan are, but we should welcome South Korea being involved this way, making suggestions," outgoing Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said on "Fox News Sunday." "Instead, the administration, at least half the time, has said we're not going to have any discussions with North Korea, we're just simply not going to talk with North Korea. That is wrong," Levin said. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat who last week announced he will run for president in 2004, said on "ABC This Week" Bush's policy in North Korea "has been a failure." North Korea, which has thousands of big guns pointed at the South Korean capital, described the standoff as "very serious and unpredictable." "There is a limit to (North Korea's) forbearance and patience," Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency said. "The U.S. is well advised to ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its hostile policy to stifle (North Korea). "(North Korea) has consistently proposed dialogue with the U.S. without preconditions and conclusion of a non-aggression treaty with the U.S. There is no change in the (North Korean) stand to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula in a peaceful way," it added in an English-language report.

To: calgal who wrote (338134)	1/5/2003 5:59:52 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush keeps trying to link Saddam with 9-11. Lame. Super-hawkish on Iraq and mild-mannered on North Korea. As if NK isn't a bigger and more immediate threat. Maybe Bush should tell NK it's MGM they want to attack, the makers of the James Bond film which make North Koreans look very bad. The NK's are blaming that film on the US. Scary when a country is that far out of touch with reality. Maybe the Axis Of Evil speech made them think Bush was going to attack them. Possible. Didn't help, that's for sure. Whatever chickenhawk wrote that speech ought to be fired.