October 18, 2002	Friday	Sha'aban 11, 1423

WASHINGTON, Oct 17: US President George Bush faced up to a “sobering” nuclear crisis with “axis of evil” foe North Korea on Wednesday, with the United States already deeply committed to an invasion of Iraq.

The stunning US announcement on Wednesday night that North Korea had confessed to pursuing a secret nuclear weapons programme in violation of international agreements left US officials in a conundrum over their next move with Pyongyang.

They must play the notoriously difficult game of reading the mind of enigmatic North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, and decide whether the revelations amount to an immediate security threat or another round of high-stakes brinksmanship.

“The president believes this is troubling and sobering,” Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said as the president travelled to Georgia.

“We are addressing this through diplomatic channels. ... We continue to seek a peaceful resolution.”

McClellan said there were “no plans to hold further talks at this time” with Pyongyang, following comments by State Department officials that a give-and-take dialogue with Pyongyang was for the moment no longer possible.

Japan and South Korea, awaiting talks with a US envoy over the building storm, put up a calm front, stressing their dialogues with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il would go on.

North Korean officials admitted they had continued to develop nuclear weapons, in violation of a 1994 agreement, in talks earlier this month with senior State Department official James Kelly, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday.

Pyongyang considers the deal — known as the Agreed Framework, under which it agreed to freeze its nuclear programme — “nullified,” he added.

Kelly presented North Korean officials with evidence of the nuclear programme during his Oct 3-5 visit, and at first they called the allegations a “fabrication”, a senior administration official said.

But a day later, Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Joo confirmed the allegations after an all-night meeting of North Korean officials.

Kang also said North Korea had built “more powerful” weapons, but the US officials were uncertain what he meant. He may have been referring to weapons of mass destruction, including biological ones, the official said.

Officials would not comment on whether the highly enriched uranium used in the programme was ready to be turned into weapons.

Bush left the White House early on Thursday for a trip to Georgia and Florida without speaking to reporters.

The US president has said he does not trust Kim, and branded North Korea one-third of an “axis of evil” including Iran and Iraq, states which he fears could offer weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

North Korea’s admission appears to cast in grave doubt a 1994 deal with the United States which averted a looming war and ended its nuclear weapons programme in return for the provision of two atomic power reactors.

EU REACTION: The European Union said it may be forced to review its 20-million-dollar-a-year contribution to a consortium building the plant, the Korean peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO).

Kelly, who left on Wednesday on a mission to Beijing, now plans to go to Seoul and Tokyo over the weekend to discuss the crisis.

Officials have been locked in intense debate since Kelly’s return from North Korea two weeks ago, and admit they were caught completely off guard by the admission.—AFP