-Caveat Lector-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,36
04,865061,00.html
N Korea threatens to 'destroy world'
Rumsfeld gets tough on North Korea
John Gittings in Hong Kong and Suzanne Goldenberg
in Washington
Tuesday December 24, 2002
The Guardian
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary,
yesterday warned North Korea that America could
fight and win two regional conflicts. He advised
Pyongyang not to become "emboldened" by the US
administration's immediate focus on Iraq.
"We are capable of fighting two major regional
conflicts. We're capable of winning decisively in
one and swiftly defeating in the case of the
other, and let there be no doubt about it," Mr
Rumsfeld said.
His comments came amid desperate diplomatic
efforts to head off the growing Korean crisis.
The UN has confirmed that North Korea has carried
out its threat to remove UN seals and dismantle
monitoring cameras at a laboratory used to produce
weapons-grade plutonium.
A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy
Agency said: "There is not any legitimate purpose
for the facility other than separating plutonium
from spent fuel."
Senator Joseph Biden, the outgoing chairman of the
Senate foreign relations committee, warned that
North Korea's plan to restart a programme for
plutonium extraction could allow it to produce
bombs "within months".
Mr Biden said the crisis was "a greater danger
immediately to US interests _ than Saddam
Hussein".
While the rhetoric sharpened, Mr Rumsfeld insisted
that Washington would pursue a diplomatic strategy
against North Korea for the moment, as that crisis
was still at a relatively early stage.
Pyongyang has issued a series of threats,
including one to "destroy the earth" if the US
resorted to nuclear war against it. South Korea's
president, Kim Dae-jung, and the president-elect,
Roh Moo-hyun, sought to calm the mood by saying
they wanted a peaceful resolution.
While Russia expressed concern at the North's
weekend announcement, the deputy foreign minister
warned the US not to aggravate the crisis.
But the US state department yesterday rejected
Pyongyang's insistence that the crisis can be
solved if the US signs a treaty of non-aggression.
"We will not bargain or offer inducements for
North Korea to live up to the treaties and
agreements it has signed," a spokesman said.
US intelligence sources were quoted by the BBC as
saying they believe "North Korea may already have
a small number of nuclear bombs and the material
to make a few more".
The North Korean media has given Bush
administration hardliners all the material they
may want.
The communist party's newspaper, the Workers'
Daily, declared that "the army and people of the
DPRK are fully ready to mercilessly strike the
bulwark of US imperialist aggressors" - implying
that they could hit targets in the US.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited
2002
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