WASHINGTON – President Bush has “robust plans for any contingencies” on North Korea – including military force – but still expects to resolve the crisis there by peaceful diplomacy, the White House said yesterday.
Analysts say North Korea – an impoverished and isolated Stalinist regime faced with mass starvation – is out to rattle Bush now by trying to take advantage of the showdown with Iraq.
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer at first said there is “real cause for concern” over North Korea’s threat to launch “total war” if there are preemptive U.S. attacks on its nuclear facilities, but later he downplayed the threats as “rattling” talk.
“Much of this rattling has taken place in previous decades and previous times. And this president is dedicated to dealing with this and to do so diplomatically, along with allies in the region,” Fleischer said.
But he also said “the United States is very prepared with robust plans for any contingencies” – which Fleischer said meant military contingencies against the state that Bush once linked with Iraq and Iran in his “Axis of Evil.”
This week, North Korea said it was putting its nuclear plants up and running on “normal footing,” prompting Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld to voice concern that it will start selling nuclear weapons to other rogue states.
Over the past few weeks, the White House has downplayed a series of escalating and threatening statements from North Korea, suggesting it will refuse to rise to that bait and that’s the best way to deal with Pyongyang.
Bush aides say they are working closely with North Korea’s neighbors who are in greater danger from its threats – South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.