Did NKor Try To Take US Crew Hostage?

The North Korean fighter jets that intercepted an unarmed American spy plane over the Sea of Japan last weekend were trying to force the aircraft to land in North Korea and seize its crew, according to Saturday's New York Times, which quoted a senior defense official.

One of the four North Korean MIG's came within 50 feet of the American plane, an Air Force RC-135S Cobra Ball aircraft, and the pilot made internationally recognized hand signals to the American flight crew to follow him, presumably back to his home base, the official told the Times.

The American crew members ignored the gesture commands, aborted the surveillance mission in international airspace about 150 miles off the North Korean coast, and returned safely to their home base at Kadena Air Base in Japan.

The official offered no explanation to the Times as to why the North Korean fighters did not take further action once the American plane aborted its mission and turned back toward its base.

Details about the intercept, which came to light after military officials interviewed the flight crew, suggest that the more than 15 Americans aboard faced greater peril than was previously known, the Times says. Ignoring a fighter pilot's order to land, even in international airspace, could have led to the plane's downing, military officials said.

"Clearly, it appears their intention was to divert the aircraft to North Korea, and take it hostage," the official told the newspaper.

In the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, a state-run North Korean newspaper on Saturday rejected a U.S. proposal to resolve the standoff over the communist state's nuclear programs through multilateral talks, reiterating Pyongyang's demand for direct dialogue with Washington.

President Bush said Thursday that multilateral dialogue was the best way to deal with the communist nation's nuclear development, which he called "a regional issue."

Without mentioning Mr. Bush's comments, the daily Minju Joson on Saturday attacked the same proposal mentioned earlier by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"Through 'multilateral talks' the U.S. seeks to internationalize the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, evade its responsibility for spawning it and make its solution more difficult," Minju Jonson said in a commentary carried by Pyongyang's official news agency, KCNA.

Washington says North Korea's nuclear programs threaten not just American interests but also those of Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. But the isolated North insists on direct talks with Washington, in an apparent bid to win security assurances and economic aid.

"If the U.S. truly wants the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue, it should drop its absurd assertions and immediately opt for the direct talks with the (North)," Minju Joson said.

In Washington, U.S. officials said Friday that North Korea could be preparing for another missile test, citing a warning to ships to stay out of a sector of the sea between North Korea and Japan from Saturday to Tuesday.

North Korea's notice to mariners outlines an "exclusion zone" off its coast that is almost identical to one announced before it tested an anti-ship cruise missile Feb. 24, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman.

The test-firing last month, which came on the eve of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's inauguration, fits with the pattern of recent North Korean maneuvers aimed at ratcheting up tension and forcing the United States into direct talks, according to Seoul officials.

U.S. officials sought to minimize the significance of that missile test, saying it involved a small weapon and not one of North Korea's long-range ballistic missiles.

The nuclear dispute flared in October, when U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted having a covert nuclear program in violation of a 1994 deal. Washington and its allies suspended fuel shipments; the North retaliated by expelling U.N. monitors, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting a nuclear reactor.