Oct 10, 2006 4:36 pm US/Eastern
U.S.: North Korean 'Threat' Won't Work
Bush Administration Refuses Direct Talks As U.N. Weighs Sanctions
BEIJING (CBS News) ―
The Bush administration rejected anew Tuesday direct talks with North Korea and said it would not be intimidated by a reported threat from Pyongyang that it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts to resolve the standoff.
"This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and intimidation," said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. "It's worked for them before. It won't work for them now."
The White House said, meanwhile, there is a "remote possibility" that the world never will be able to fully determine whether North Korea succeeded in conducting a nuclear test Monday.
While acknowledging that the action was provocative, White House press secretary Tony Snow suggested that it's possible that the test was something less than it appeared.
"You could have something that is very old and off-the-shelf here, as well, in which case they've dusted off something that is old and dormant," he said. He said the intelligence community is continuing to assess the explosion.
The White House's flat-out refusal to talk directly with the North Koreans was called into question Tuesday by Bill Richardson, a prominent Democrat and former U.S. ambassador who has visited the North.
"I would engage directly in face-to-face talks," Richardson, who has also served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said on NBC's "Today" show. "That's when you deliver your toughest message."
In taking that stance, Richardson echoed the message that former Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Sunday, as Baker urged the administration to talk directly to adversaries around the world.
The United Nations Security Council was gearing up for a vote on North Korea Tuesday. Bolton told CBS News' The Early Show that the vote would be "a test" for the council.
Talking to Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm, Bolton said that in the first round of negotiations Monday, "Nobody defended North Korea, that's step one."
He said step two was getting all the council members, particularly China, to agree to strong sanctions against Pyongyang. When asked whether a resolution passed by the council would have "teeth," Bolton said, "we'll see."
China avoided endorsing sanctions against North Korea Tuesday, saying that the U.N. should "take positive" measures to encourage disarmament.
Beijing, at the same time, warned North Korea that the reclusive nation's nuclear test would hurt ties between the longtime allies, while Japan's leader said the reported blast wouldn't prompt the Japanese to pursue atomic weapons.
The Asian powers were busy hashing out ways to punish North Korea in the United Nations, where America was pressing for potentially crippling new measures against Pyongyang. China has long opposed sanctions, but Beijing's patience seemed to be rapidly wearing thin with the North since Monday's alleged test.
China's Foreign Ministry said North Korea's nuclear test would harm ties between the countries, who fought the American-led U.N. forces in the Korean War.
"The nuclear test will undoubtedly exert a negative impact on our relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.
But Liu added that China is "firmly against" a military strike against the North.'
"Taking military action against North Korea would be unimaginable," he said.
China, a U.N. Security Council member, holds a decisive say over how stern a punishment the international community can mete out to North Korea.
A South Korean envoy, returning to Seoul from Beijing, said Tuesday that China appeared to be leaning toward backing strong U.N. measures.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reported Tuesday that the Chinese — North Korea's largest trading partner, which had been told by Pyongyang there would be no test — "reacted far more strongly than usual" to the news.
Bolton asked the council Monday to adopt a very strong resolution imposing new sanctions against the North aimed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, prohibiting all trade in military and luxury goods, and preventing "any abuses of the international financial system" that could contribute to the transfer or development of banned weapons.
The United States circulated a draft resolution late Monday that would condemn the test, demand that North Korea immediately return to six-party talks without precondition, and impose sanctions for Pyongyang's "flagrant disregard" of the council's appeal not to detonate a device. The draft, obtained by the Associated Press, was based on proposals circulated earlier Monday.
The North stepped up its threats aimed at Washington saying it could fire a nuclear nuclear-tipped missile unless the United States acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, the Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday from Beijing.
"We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," Yonhap quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying. "That depends on how the U.S. will act."
The official said the nuclear test was "an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table," reported Yonhap, which didn't say how or where it contacted the official, or why no name was given.
"What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system," the official reportedly said.
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that U.S. officials were still working to determine whether the test in North Korea was, in fact, nuclear.
Richard Mah, a former U.S. nuclear weapons engineer, told Martin that North Korea was probably hoping for a larger explosion than they got.
"My guess is if you were going to set off your first nuclear device, you would try for as large a yield as possible," Mah said.
Martin said the blast in northwest North Korea on Monday was about 1/60th the size of the nuclear explosion that leveled Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
Never the less, former State Department official Joel Witt told Martin that the North Korean test big enough to have its desired effect. "The North Koreans may have wanted a bigger blast than what came off, but the fact is they got a blast, and I think that's sufficient for their purposes to let everyone know that there's a new nuclear kid on the block."
Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, told reporters that the alleged nuclear test would make the possibility of direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang more difficult, Yonhap reported.
In Japan, officials discussed military and financial sanctions, but provided few details.
There have been worries that the reported nuclear test would prompt Japan to build its own bomb. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers Japan's anti-nuclear policy would remain unchanged.
"There will be no change in our non-nuclear arms principles," Abe said.
Japan's pacifist constitution bars the use of force to settle international disputes, and Japan has maintained a policy of not producing, possessing or using nuclear weapons.
Although the reported test drew worldwide condemnation and talk of harsh sanctions, the South said it would stick with its efforts to engage the North, though the policy would be reviewed.
North Korea celebrated a holiday Tuesday marking the 61st anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea. There was no traffic across a key bridge on a border river between China and North Korea.
China canceled leave for its soldiers along the North Korean border and some units were conducting anti-chemical weapons drills, the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po reported in Hong Kong. The paper didn't elaborate.
There was no sign of heightened security in the Chinese border city of Dandung, and reporters saw two boatloads of North Korean tourists on the river, smiling and waving to people on the Chinese shore.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
