Bush Talks Mild, N. Korea Blusters

In his first public remarks on North Korea in two weeks, President Bush said Tuesday he is confident North Korea's nuclear buildup can be stopped diplomatically.

Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr. Bush said "all options, of course, are always on the table for any president," but he also suggested that military conflict is not being considered.

"I do not believe this is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown," Mr. Bush said, adding that he thought the confrontation could be resolved peacefully.

He said the United States is working with its allies to help persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. In violation of a 1994 deal with the Clinton White House, Pyongyang has restarted its efforts to develop nuclear weapons and add to a stockpile that U.S. officials believe already consists of one or two bombs.

North Korea, meanwhile, accused the United States on Tuesday of plotting a war against it and vowed to fight "to the last man." The country expelled two U.N. weapons inspectors -- a Lebanese man and a Chinese woman — who arrived in Beijing on Tuesday.

North Korea is preparing to reactivate its suspected nuclear weapons program in defiance of world opinion.

"We were the eyes of the world," said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna after the inspectors' arrival in Beijing. "Now we virtually have no possibility to monitor North Korea's nuclear activities nor to provide any assurances to the international community that they are not producing a nuclear weapon."

Fleming said the expulsions left the agency reliant on satellite imagery.

Further escalating tensions, North Korea's ambassador to Moscow said Tuesday that Pyongyang could not make good on its commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty because of U.S. pressure. The treaty seeks to confine nuclear weapons to the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.

"Pyongyang today cannot secure the continuation of guarantees of its special situation, according to which North Korea temporarily suspended its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Pak Ui Chun was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

It was the clearest sign yet that North Korea was planning to pull out of the 1968 treaty, which it joined in 1985. However, IAEA spokeswoman Fleming said that North Korea had not informed the agency that it was abandoning the treaty.

U.S. officials said they were considering using heavy economic pressure on the communist nation to force it to give up its nuclear ambitions. North Korea blames Washington for escalating the confrontation.

"The U.S. is stepping up preparations for a war against (North Korea)," said a commentary in North Korea's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun.

"If the enemy invades even an inch of the inviolable territory of (North Korea), the people's army and people of (North Korea) will wipe out the aggressors to the last man," the newspaper said.

South Korean officials are alarmed at signs that North Korea may withdraw from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, a move that would drastically escalate the nuclear crisis.

The nonproliferation treaty was adopted in 1968 and ratified by 187 countries, though not by at least three countries known to possess nuclear weapons — India, Pakistan and Israel. North Korea signed the treaty in 1985 but tried to withdraw in 1993 over suspicions it was producing weapons. That crisis was averted by the 1994 energy deal with the United States.

South Korea's President-elect Roh Moo-hyun raised doubts about the U.S. strategy for containing North Korea. He said he was worried that pressure could backfire and trigger armed conflict on the world's last Cold War frontier. More than two million troops are massed on both sides of the border.

Roh, who begins a five-year term in February, supports outgoing President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of engaging North Korea. They believe that dialogue is the only viable way to resolve the nuclear issue.

Roh requested that the United States consult South Korea, a close ally, before formulating a new approach in its policy toward North Korea.

"Success or failure of a U.S. policy toward North Korea isn't too big a deal to the American people, but it is a life-or-death matter for South Koreans," he told reporters. "Therefore, any U.S. move should fully consider South Korea's opinion."

Support for U.S. policy in South Korea is hampered by rising anti-American sentiment over the recent acquittal of two U.S. servicemen in the accidental deaths of two Korean girls. Just Tuesday, thousands demonstrated in Seoul, some chanting, "Punish the murderous American soldiers! Bring them to our court!"

In recent weeks, North Korea removed monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, which were frozen under a deal with the United States in 1994. Those facilities could turn plutonium into nuclear weapons material.

Pyongyang said earlier this month it planned to reactivate the facilities to produce electricity because Washington had halted promised energy sources. The U.S. cut off energy aid because to North was found to have restarted a separate, uranium-based nuclear program.

North Korea says that it is willing to resolve concerns over its nuclear program if the United States signs a nonaggression treaty. Washington has ruled out any talks before the North changes course.