As Bush Promises Dialogue, North Korea Promises War

President Bush repeated his assurance not to invade North Korea during a Cabinet meeting yesterday, claiming that the U.S. will have dialoguewith North Korea.

North Korea answered back last night that U.S. inspired UN sanctions mean a war and the war knows no mercy,” in a message carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

A week after North Korea expelled international inspectors at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Koreas communist government that it has only a matter of weeks to readmit inspectors or the matter would be referred to the UN Security Council.

Answering back regional critics who blame the U.S. for the crisis unfolding on the Korean peninsula, Washington Post columnist Fred Hiatt argues that nations such as South Korea have particular interests that, despite its kinship and proximity to the North, do not always reflect the interests of North Korea’s suffering people or of global stability.

Read the Center’s new report on the People’s Republic of China 2002 Zhuhai Airshow by Asian Security Studies Fellow Richard Fisher.