Bush: Communist Nation Must Face ‘Serious Repercussions’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — President Bush demanded North Korea face “serious repercussions” for its claimed nuclear weapons test as he defended his strategy for dealing with the regime there as well as the American approach in Iraq.
Mr. Bush rebuffed calls from critics and some members of his own party to hold direct talks with Kim Jong Il’s government.
“I can remember the time when it was said that the Mr. Bush administration goes it alone too often in the world, which I always thought was a bogus claim to begin with,” Mr. Bush said yesterday at the White House. “And now all of a sudden people are saying, the Bush administration ought to be going alone with North Korea.”
In an hour-long news conference dominated by North Korea and what Mr. Bush called the “unspeakable violence” in Iraq, the president also injected domestic politics. He jabbed at Democrats, saying they want to “cut and run” in Iraq and would raise taxes if they gain a congressional majority in the election less than four weeks away.
Mr. Bush said his administration would increase military cooperation with allies in the region, including work on ballistic missile defenses.
He said America has “no intention of attacking North Korea” and remains committed to a diplomatic solution. He added that the nation “also reserves all options to defend our friends and our interests.”
James Baker, who was secretary of state under Mr. Bush’s father, President George H. W. Bush, and Republican Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania were among Mr. Bush’s domestic allies calling for America to keep open lines of communication.
“It didn’t work in the past,” Mr. Bush said of bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea.The president said he decided the best course — with North Korea and Iran — was to have other countries involved.
America is working with China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia to bring North Korea into negotiations aimed at getting Mr. Kim’s regime to give up pursuit of nuclear weapons. Asked if America was prepared to live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, Mr. Bush answered, “No.”
Within an hour of Mr. Bush’s news conference, both the Republican National Committee and congressional Democrats were exchanging criticism and blame over North Korea.
The RNC issued a statement calling American policy toward North Korea a “failure” during the administration of President Clinton. Senate Democrats organized a conference call to respond.
“The Bush administration abandoned the successful diplomacy of the Clinton administration and tried a new approach, and we know now this approach has failed,” Senator Durbin of Illinois, the no. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
Repeating a theme that Democrats are using as they seek to overturn Republican majorities in the House and Senate, Mr. Durbin said, “It’s obvious the Bush administration has not made the world safer.”
A study released yesterday by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad said more than 600,000 people have died violent deaths in Iraq since the American-led invasion in March 2003.
While Mr. Bush acknowledged that “the brutality of Iraq’s enemies has been on full display in recent days,” he dismissed the study.
“I don’t consider it a credible report,” he said.
Mr. Bush also made partisan points on Iraq and the economy.
“There are some who say: Get out; it’s not worth it,” Mr. Bush said. “And those are some of the voices, by the way, in the Democrat Party.”
Mr. Bush cited the Treasury Department’s announcement an hour earlier that the deficit for fiscal 2006 narrowed to $248 billion from $319 billion the year before. He said that was evidence that the tax cuts he pushed through the Republican-controlled Congress are keeping the economy strong.
“I would like to keep — make the tax cuts we passed permanent,” he said. “And the Democrats will raise taxes.”
Mr. Bush’s Republican Party is attempting to hold on to its majorities in the House and Senate in the November 7 elections. Recent polls by CNN, ABC News, and the Washington Post and CBS and the New York Times show Mr. Bush’s public approval rating is below 40% and that voters increasingly prefer Democrats take control of the Congress.