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| Korea | ||
| US warns Pyongyang to abandon atomic weapons | ||
| 2003-06-01 | ||
| US President George W. Bush on Sunday warned Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions as tensions rose again in east Asia following a naval clash between North Korea and South Korea. using a typically stupid NK incident to ratchet up the pressure "We strongly urge North Korea to visibly, verifiably, and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear weapons programme," Mr Bush said in St Petersburg, following talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. "The United States and Russia are determined to meet the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them." South Korea's navy on Sunday fired warning shots after North Korean fishing boats crossed the disputed maritime border for the fifth time in seven days. The incident increased fears that the two Koreas could be heading for a repeat of last June's naval battle, in which five South Korean sailors and an unknown number of North Koreans died. Mr Bush's warnings came as other senior US officials cautioned that time was running out to stop North Korea's weapons programme. Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, described the possibility of North Korean nuclear exports to other countries or terrorist groups as a "real and immediate danger". At a weekend meeting of ministers, military leaders and policy analysts organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, one senior western official described North Korea as Washington's "first priority in Asia". The official criticised Pyongyang's "very aggressive weapons of mass destruction programme". "We don't have much time to solve it." US officials want Seoul, Tokyo and above all Beijing to apply pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions and rejoin the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. Mr Wolfowitz said: "A consensus is beginning to take shape that the only way we will be able to solve this problem peacefully is through a carefully managed multilateral approach to Pyongyang." But some delegates at the IISS conference held out the possibility of a US first strike to destroy North Korean nuclear targets. "The path we're on is letting North Korea go nuclear, and I think that's an unacceptable path," said one military strategist. Pretty much leaves 3 options - diplomatic disarmament and a nuke strike Asian leaders have stressed that the North Korean threat must be dealt with peacefully. fallout sucks Hu Jintao, Chinese president, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed at a meeting in Russia on Saturday that tensions surrounding North Korea's nuclear programme should be dealt with through dialogue - but offered little specific action.
Maybe we're finally getting a consensus of the neighbors that NK has to be dealt with?
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| Posted by:Frank G |