N. Korea: the next nuclear power

WASHINGTON -- The United States is preparing to take its case against North Korea to the U.N. Security Council and is looking for broad support to try to harness the country's nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea's decision to quit a treaty designed to curb the spread of nuclear technology triggered the Bush administration's decision.

Referring also to North Korea's reversal of a 1994 pledge to freeze its nuclear weapons programs, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday, 'It will ultimately have to go to the Security Council.' He said the timing was not set.

Powell made the statement after conferring with Mohamed elBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

At a joint news conference, elBaradei said, 'What I think we are talking about is a matter of weeks. ... If we do not see signs of cooperation on the part of the DPRK (North Korea) quite soon, then obviously we will have to move to the Security Council.'

North Korean officials said the country does not plan to rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but would agree to let the United States verify that it is not producing nuclear weapons if Washington drops its hostile stance.

'The DPRK may prove through a separate verification between the DPRK and the U.S. that it does not make any nuclear weapons,' said a government statement issued in Pyongyang, referring to the North's full name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

One option open to the Security Council would be to apply worldwide economic sanctions against North Korea, worsening its already desperate economic situation.

In the meantime, President Bush talked by telephone Friday to Chinese President Jiang Zemin in an effort to take a united stand on North Korea.

Powell condemned North Korea's decision to quit the 1968 treaty, saying 'North Korea has thumbed its nose at the international community.'

'It is a very serious situation,' Powell said. 'We are not going to be intimidated. We are not going to be put in a panic situation. We are going to work this deliberately.'

At the same time, Powell renewed the Bush administration's overture to hold direct talks with North Korea and said, 'We hope the North Korean leadership will understand the folly of its actions.'

ElBaradei accused North Korea of 'a policy of defiance.'

Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Sweden also denounced the North Korean decision. Japan called on its regional neighbor to reverse course.

After Bush talked to Jiang for 15 minutes, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush had told the Chinese President 'this binds us in common purpose.'

Bush also told Jiang the United States seeks a peaceful solution to the standoff, while Jiang 'reiterated China's commitment to a non-nuclear Korean peninsula,' Fleischer said.

Meanwhile, two North Korean envoys met in Santa Fe, N.M., with Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador and diplomatic troubleshooter. Outside the governor's mansion a few demonstrators carried placards reading 'Peace for N. Korea' and 'Diplomacy, not War.'

After meetings Thursday and Friday, they planned to resume talks Saturday before the North Koreans depart.

Richardson -- who stressed he is not an official envoy of the Bush administration -- said the talks covered a range of issues, but he would not give details. He said he has been in frequent contact with Powell.

'I support the administration's policy,' he said. 'I think it is a sound policy. The administration, through Secretary Powell, has conveyed to me some strong views and I have conveyed them to the North Koreans.'

Powell said he would not offer an assessment until the talks were concluded.

A senior U.S. official said before talks ended Friday that the North Korean diplomats had expressed an interest in dialogue with the United States but had 'nothing particularly new' to say to Richardson.

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