South Korea's ruling party said yesterday it feared Washington might be getting emotional in its handling of North Korea's nuclear crisis, a day after US President George W. Bush said he was considering "all options" on Korea.
Bush said on Friday that "all options are on the table," suggesting that the US could consider military action in its efforts to curb the Stalinist regime's nuclear activities.
Yesterday, North Korea continued its talk of war, accusing Bush of planning to invade the impoverished state and warning that a conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula would devastate the South as well.
"North Korea's recent moves cannot be praised, but we cannot help expressing concern as to whether emotions have interfered with US efforts to resolve the North's nuclear problem," Chang Chun-hyong, a deputy spokesman of the South's ruling Millennium Democratic Party, said in a statement yesterday.
Chang was referring to Bush's remarks and those of the US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who called North Korea "a terrorist regime" on Wednesday.
"We make it clear that there should be no mistake in judgment and a worst-case scenario should never unfold on the Korean Peninsula," it said.
South Korea, while saying it wants to continue its close military alliance with Washington, fears that the standoff between the US and North Korea might lead to clashes and has urged the US to seek a peaceful settlement.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the phase of serious crisis," the North's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun said. "There is no guarantee that the US warhawks, seized by extreme war fever, would not ignite a war of aggression."
"This war will not bring disasters to the North only," Rodong Sinmun said. "It is, therefore, a task facing all Koreans in the North and the South to avert the danger of a war and protect peace on the Korean Peninsula."
North Korea's long-standing strategy has been to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington by arguing that the US stance poses a threat to South Korea as well. It warned Thursday that if the US builds up reinforcements in the region, it could trigger "a total war."
Bush and his aides usually take care to state that the US has no intention of attacking North Korea. In his comments Friday, Bush did not repeat that message.
Relations between the US and North Korea deteriorated in October, when US officials said North Korea had admitted having a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement. Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments to North Korea -- which in turn expelled UN nuclear inspectors and pulled out of a global nuclear arms control treaty.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors will meet next Wednesday to discuss the standoff and is almost certain to send the dispute to the UN Security Council, which may discuss economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
US officials have spoken before about their ability to respond militarily to any potential hostile action by North Korea, in part to dispel any hopes Pyongyang may have about taking advantage of Bush's focus on Iraq.
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