U.S. Dangles Energy Aid to N.Korea

The White House asserted Monday that offering the prospect of energy assistance to North Korea does not amount to rewarding Pyongyang for its defiant stance in the dispute over its nuclear weapons program.

Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer spoke after an American envoy said in Seoul, South Korea, that the United States is willing to consider energy aid for North Korea if Pyongyang ends nuclear weapons development.

"Once we get beyond nuclear weapons, there may be opportunities with the U.S., with private investors, with other countries to help North Korea in the energy area," Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly told reporters.

Fleischer told reporters at the White House that North Korea "wants to take the world through its blackmail playbook and we won't play."

The communist country withdrew from the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty last week and has threatened to resume long-range missile tests and to begin reprocessing spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor to make atomic bombs.

President Bush has vowed not to "reward bad behavior" by giving North Korea incentives to drop its nuclear program. A 1994 deal by the Clinton White House gave North Korea fuel oil in exchange for Pyongyang's promise to stop building nuclear weapons. The agreement was nullified last fall when the United States said North Korea had acknowledged a secret nuclear weapons program.

Asked whether Kelly's offer violated Bush's pledge not to negotiate with Pyongyang, Fleischer replied, "There is a perfect consistency here."

Fleischer said any moves by North Korea to end nuclear programs "needs to be verifiable ... needs to be irreversible."

"We are willing to talk about North Korea dismantling its facilities and coming back into international compliance with their obligations," he said. "Having done that, once they do that, then at that point North Korea can resume its place as a sovereign nation that is respected by other nations."

Fleischer pointed to a joint communique issued by the United States, South Korea and Japan last week in which the administration softened its position against talks with Pyongyang. The communique held out hope for "a better path, leading toward improved relations" with the world if North Korea dropped its nuclear weapons program, Fleischer said.

Kelley's talk of energy aid fell into the category of improved relations, Fleischer said.

"So, except for the fact that he cited one specific sector of what (the communique) previously said on the record, I see no difference," he said.

In a related matter, the spokesman said military action is not being considered in North Korea, though it is always an option for the White House.

"As a generic matter, the president does not take military action off the table, but that is not his approach" with North Korea," Fleischer said. "His approach is diplomatic."

Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Monday the United States should not submit to North Korean threats, but negotiations are needed to end its nuclear programs.

"We made that (energy) deal before and this administration definitely did not agree with the Clinton approach to it," he said. "I think that's the only ballgame in town," Skelton said in an interview. "You're going to have to talk to them. You're going to have to do some kind of negotiation."

Several members of Congress have said that North Korea's nuclear threats are escalating toward a crisis that requires the United States to at least open a dialogue without making promises.

"It might not be in a crisis stage at the moment, but it's going to get there if something is not done about it," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition."

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the administration for failing to have a steady plan to deal with North Korea. "The question isn't whether it's a threat. It's a threat," he said on CNN. "The question is how you deal with the threat."

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, who held three days of talks in Santa Fe, N.M., with North Korean diplomats, said talk of a "holy war" against America and other menacing statements mask a desire to start a dialogue with the administration.

"They don't negotiate like we do. They don't have our same mentality," Richardson said Sunday on ABC. "They believe in order to get something they have to lay out additional cards, step up the rhetoric, be more belligerent."