Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday said North Korea probably has “one or two nuclear weapons” but the United States isn’t planning any military action, even though the Stalinist regime broke a Clinton-era pledge to dismantle its nuclear program.
North Korea is part of President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” – along with Iraq and Iran – and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is “a threat in his own right” but less than Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Powell said.
“I’m not suggesting military action at this point,” he told ABC. Saddam is a greater threat, Powell told “Fox News Sunday,” because he has used chemical weapons against his own people and has a wealthy country, while North Korea is broke and isolated.
Former President Bill Clinton cut a deal with North Korea to stop its nuclear-weapons program, with the United States supplying 500,000 tons of fuel annually.
North Korea has admitted breaking the deal.