- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
United States is ready to deal with any contingencies in North Korea, a
White House spokesman said on Thursday, dismissing Pyongyang's warning
that it could preemptively strike U.S. forces as nothing new.
-
- Remarks by North Korean deputy foreign minister director
Ri Pyong-gap -- quoted as saying "preemptive attacks are not the exclusive
right of the U.S." -- further isolated North Korea internationally,
said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
-
- "(Saber)-rattling statements coming out of North
Korea are not new," he told reporters. "Obviously the United
States is very prepared for robust plans for any contingencies. But this
type of talk and the type of actions North Korea has engaged in or says
it's engaging in only hurt North Korea."
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- The question was how to respond to Pyongyang and President
Bush believes the best way is to join with Japan, South Korea, Russia and
China and resolve the situation through diplomacy, Fleischer said.
-
- "The president believes that diplomacy is the way
to handle the situation vis-a-vis North Korea. ... But the United States,
of course, has contingency plans and the United States makes certain the
contingencies are viable," he said.
-
- Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
Secretary of State Colin Powell said no options had been taken off the
table, including the military option "although we have no intention
of attacking North Korea as a nation ... or invading North Korea."
-
- Under pressure from committee members to take the North
Korean threat more seriously, Powell said he understood their "anxiety,"
adding: "I still think it is possible to achieve a diplomatic solution.
We have tried to lower the rhetoric."
-
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday called
North Korea's announcement that it had restarted nuclear facilities dangerous
and said U.S. forces were ready to confront the "terrorist regime"
if necessary.
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- NUCLEAR PROGRAM 'VERY FAR ALONG'
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- He told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee
that U.S. forces could respond if needed despite preparations for possible
war with Iraq. The United States has 37,000 troops stationed in the demilitarized
zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.
-
- Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice cautioned
in an ABC television interview that North Korea was "very far along"
in its nuclear program, limiting U.S. options.
-
- But Bush and his senior foreign policy aides say they
are looking for a diplomatic solution, working through U.S. allies in the
region as well as China and Russia.
-
- Powell said South Korea had asked the United States to
do more to resolve the confrontation with the North that began last October
when U.S. officials said Pyongyang acknowledged having a uranium enrichment
program banned under a 1994 agreement with Washington.
-
- "We are prepared to do more, but at the same time
we have to find a complete solution to this problem" so it doesn't
reoccur three or four years from now, Powell said. "We're communicating
to the North Koreans in every way we can, through all manner of channels,
both public and private."
-
- The United States has said it is willing to talk to North
Korea about how it will dismantle its nuclear programs, which include a
uranium enrichment plant and a nuclear complex capable of producing plutonium.
-
- But the Bush administration also has tried to play down
the gravity of the dispute and not pressed for immediate Security Council
action.
-
- Powell pointed out that while North Korea has said it
would restart a nuclear reactor, he also noted that traffic began moving
on Wednesday between North and South Korea through one of the openings
in the DMZ, something "we have been working to achieve and to get
worked out between the two sides."
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