N. Korea Faces Diplomatic Onslaught

The administration of President George W. Bush is trying to form an international coalition to steer North Korea away from its decision to pursue nuclear weapons despite pledges not to do so.

"I think we're going to see that no one wants to have a nuclear-armed North Korea," Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, said in a broadcast interview Thursday night.

"Effective international pressure may have an effect on North Korea," she said, adding that China, Russia, South Korea and Japan could fill that role.

The U.S. diplomatic offensive began not long after the administration disclosed Wednesday that North Korea had acknowledged, during bilateral talks earlier this month, that it was attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

Two top State Department officials, John Bolton and James Kelly, flew to Beijing for talks Thursday with Chinese officials.

China is a major trading partner of North Korea's and perhaps the one country capable of extracting concessions from the communist nation through economic sanctions, a Bush administration official said.

At the White House, reporters were told the Chinese were stunned upon learning of North Korea's acknowledgment that it was pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

As the administration sees it, a nuclear-armed North Korea would alarm China because it would prompt Japan, China's historic rival, to carry out a military buildup of its own, forcing China to respond in kind.

Kelly plans consultations in Japan and South Korea on North Korea. Bolton's itinerary includes stops in Russia, Britain and France, all nuclear powers which may have views on how to influence North Korea.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had no plans to undertake military action against North Korea.

Rice suggested it would be a mistake to equate the situation in North Korea with that of Iraq, where the United States is contemplating use of force to disarm that country.

"We've tried everything with Saddam Hussein. Nothing has worked," she said.

North Korea's nuclear program came to light when a U.S. delegation confronted North Korea with evidence gathered over the past several months, including recent bills of sale, that Pyongyang had been working to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, officials said.

That equipment most likely was part of a gas centrifuge program to separate weapons-grade uranium from ordinary fuel-grade uranium, private analysts said Thursday.

The New York Times reported in Friday's editions that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded Pakistan was a major supplier of equipment North Korea needed to restart a nuclear program it had agreed to suspend in 1994 as a condition of receiving foreign economic aid. In return for equipment, North Korea supplied Pakistan with missiles it could use to counter India's nuclear arsenal, the newspaper said.

China and Russia were less prominent suppliers of equipment, according to the Times report, which cited unidentified current and former senior U.S. officials.

A U.S. intelligence official said late Thursday he could not confirm the report.

North Korea's earlier nuclear efforts relied on plutonium, which makes smaller, lighter bombs but is much more difficult to produce and work with than enriched uranium.

It was not clear to U.S. officials whether the North actually has a nuclear capability or whether it is still in development. At a minimum, North Korea apparently is close to joining the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, India and Pakistan as declared nuclear powers. Israel is thought to have hundreds of nuclear warheads but has never confirmed it has a nuclear weapons program.

But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference that he believes the North Koreans already have produced some weapons.

He cited an intelligence report in which the CIA said North Koreans "may have one or two," and added, "I believe they have a small number of nuclear weapons."

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said North Korea must allow international inspections of their nuclear facilities and must agree to destroy whatever weapons of mass destruction they have.