January 4, 2003	Saturday	Shawwal 30, 1423

WASHINGTON: Amid escalating tensions over Iraq and North Korea, President Bush denounced the leaders of both countries in personal terms on Thursday: He warned Saddam Hussein that “his day of reckoning is coming” and accused Kim Jong Il of starving his own people.

Bush’s remarks on the Iraqi president, while sharp, were in line with previous statements. But his criticism of the North Korean leader was a departure from his administration’s recent script, a shift that foreign-policy experts warned could backfire.

“One of the reasons why the people are starving is because the leader of North Korea hasn’t seen to it that their economy is strong or that they be fed,” the president told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

“I have no heart for somebody who starves his folks,” the president said.

Bush also denounced Saddam, calling him “a man who likes to play games and charades,” and warning that “his day of reckoning is coming.”

“Hopefully he realizes we’re serious, and hopefully he disarms peacefully,” Bush said. “He’s a danger to the American people. He’s a danger to our friends and allies.”

Both leaders are believed to have nuclear ambitions, and both are members of what Bush last year dubbed the “axis of evil.” But the administration has resisted comparisons between the two countries’ standoffs with the United States. Regarding Iraq, Bush has insisted that only the threat of force will make Saddam acquiesce to demands that he disarm. As for North Korea, Bush has said diplomacy — in close coordination with South Korea, Japan and China — is the only solution.

Even as the US military buildup accelerates in the Middle East, Bush repeated on Thursday that he hopes the conflict with Iraq can be resolved peacefully.

“I’m hopeful we won’t have to go to war, and let’s leave it at that,” the president said.

Bush’s personal criticism of Kim was not unprecedented: Several months ago, he made similar remarks to author Bob Woodward, who recounted them in his recent book, “Bush At War.”

But on Thursday was the first time the president has spoken so forcefully and personally since the crisis with North Korea escalated last month following Pyongyang’s announcement that it was restarting its plutonium-based nuclear programme.

Foreign-policy experts warned that such comments are likely to antagonize North Korea and make the crisis harder to resolve.

“I think Kim Jong Il is just as bad as Saddam Hussein, but I don’t think it’s smart diplomacy to personalize it,” said Joseph S.Nye, dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “I’m surprised that he did.”

Nye said personalization of such conflicts may make them more understandable to the American people. But they can easily exacerbate a crisis the administration is trying to resolve.

“There’s a two-audiences problem,” Nye said. “It makes it easier in terms of domestic policy, but it has costs diplomatically.”

Nye said Bush’s remarks also play into Kim’s hands by implicitly painting the conflict as one between the US and North Korean leaders. Kim has been trying to do just that, to deal directly with the US and bypass South Korea, Japan and China.

Former Clinton administration officials who have grappled with the North Korean issue argued that Bush’s comments are especially counter-productive given that Kim personifies the North Korean state to his people and is the object of a powerful, dynastic personality cult.

“In a country where, in the political culture, there is an identification between the leader and the state, I think these comments right now, while true and widely shared, are probably not helpful,” former Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary Kurt M. Campbell said.

“If your purpose is to try to resolve the issue peacefully through diplomacy, then it probably doesn’t help to personally insult the leader of the country that you hope to engage with diplomatically,” said Gary Samore, a former senior NSC official under President Clinton, now a senior fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Studies in London.

The Bush administration has said it won’t reward North Korea’s “bad behaviour” by agreeing to negotiations or resuming fuel shipments halted last month.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service.