North Korea would again be reminding the world that it is a global threat if it were to conduct a nuclear test as suggested by press reports, U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday.
Neither the president nor administration officials would comment on the validity of the reports, saying they are intelligence matters that cannot be publicly shared. But they emphasized that a test would prompt the international community to take action.
"You are asking me to divulge any intelligence information I have, and I am not going to do that," Bush told reporters.
"If North Korea were to conduct a test, it's just a constant reminder, for people in the neighborhood in particular, that North Korea poses a threat," he said.
"And we expect our friends and those sitting around the table with us to act in such a manner as to help rid the world of the threat."
ABC News, quoting senior State Department officials, reported Thursday about new signs that North Korea may be preparing for an underground nuclear test.
One official was quoted as saying that such a test as "is a real possibility."
In Seoul, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok dismissed the reports, saying South Korea and the U.S. have been closely monitoring North Korea and have not discerned such signs.
Assessments vary, but widely accepted belief puts North Korea's nuclear stockpile at between two and half a dozen bombs. Pyongyang declared in February last year that it has nuclear weapons, but there have not yet been any tests.
Six-nation talks, involving South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, aimed at persuading the communist state to give up its nuclear ambitions, have been in hiatus since November.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey, also refusing to go into intelligence matters, said there was a "tremendous difference" between estimates put out by the intelligence community and "unnamed officials speculating about intelligence matters."
"All of you certainly know that we've expressed repeatedly our concerns about North Korea's nuclear program," he said at the daily briefing.
There is a way forward in dealing with the situation, he said, which is through the six-party talks.
"That's still what we are looking for North Korea to do," he said.
"There's no benefit to the North Koreans in taking steps that only serve to further isolate them from the rest of the international community."
Seoul's dismissal of reports of a possible North Korean nuclear test does not indicate a discrepancy with Washington, Casey said.
"The South Koreans are strong partners with us in the six-party talks. We are all in agreement on the way forward," he said.
Washington, Aug. 18 (Yonhap News)
N.K. nuclear test would only remind world of the country's dangers: Bush |
