WASHINGTON, Oct 9: President George W. Bush said on Monday that the US would only use ‘diplomatic’ means to deal with the crisis arising out of the North Korean nuclear test.
“The United States remains committed to diplomacy, and we will continue to protect ourselves and our interests,” said Mr Bush. But he assured US allies in the region, particularly South Korea and Japan, that “the US will meet the full range of our deterrent and security commitments.”
The White House had earlier rejected speculations that the US may attack North Korea. White House spokesman Tony Snow said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley informed President Bush about the event shortly before 10pm, minutes after China warned the US that Pyongyang was going to conduct a nuclear test.
Mr Bush also tried to rally world leaders behind his efforts to deal with the consequences of the test and telephoned the leaders of South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to seek their support. He later said that all had reaffirmed a commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
“All of us agreed that the proclaimed actions taken by North Korea are unacceptable and deserve an immediate response by the UN Security Council,” he said.
Mr Bush also addressed America’s biggest fear: a nuclear state passing on atomic weapons to the so-called non-state actors such as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.
“The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States,” he said.
But his critics said the Bush administration helped create a situation that led North Korea to the nuclear option.
Wendy Sherman, President Bill Clinton’s special adviser on North Korea, said the Bush administration pushed the North Korean regime too hard to abandon its nuclear programme.
Giving in to US pressure would have been politically embarrassing for the North Korean rulers, so they went for the next option: a nuclear test, she said.
Ambassador Sherman claimed that North Korea has enough plutonium for eight to 10 nuclear weapons which means that “they also have enough nuclear weapons to test, to use or to trade”.
President Bush, however, ignored domestic criticism and instead focused on dealing with the international implications of the test.
He described North Korea as “one of the world’s leading proliferators” of weapons technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria, and said that the regime had “once again defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond.”
However, David Albright, former UN nuclear inspector and president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said North Korea was not seeking further escalation but was “responding from a corner” it was pushed into by US-backed sanctions and other punitive measures.
“If it is only one weapon, it would be a positive sign,” he told CNN. “If they conducted two, three or four tests, it would be more worrisome because it would suggest they were conducting... a series of tests that would allow them to create a much better arsenal.”
Other commentators said the United States now finds itself without many cards to play, having already used every possible sanction against Pyongyang.
They, however, suggested that the US would now urge China to take punitive actions against the North. But the commentators also said that China, and to some extent South Korea, would not want to destabilise North Korea as it could cause the regime to collapse and lead to massive migrations to the two neighbouring states.
Commentators also predicted that the test could undo the international non-proliferation, particularly if Japan and South Korea decide to match the North Korean threat.
Another major issue that US commentators focused on was the test’s impact on Iran, a country Washington says is secretly developing nuclear weapons. They predicted that it would now be more difficult for the US to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.
US officials, however, dismissed direct comparisons between the nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
