Patient Stand on N. Korea Urged

As tensions simmered over North Korea’s nuclear plans, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell downplayed talk of crisis on Sunday and said the United States was working for a diplomatic solution with the help of other nations.

Powell said the United States had political, economic and diplomatic means to influence North Korea, and that a U.S. military attack was not at the forefront of current plans. His comments came in a series of television appearances that seemed designed to present a firm and deliberate U.S. posture and also to counter fears that the situation on the Korean peninsula was heating up precipitously.

“I don’t want to create a sense of crisis or [suggest] that we’re on the brink of war, because I don’t believe we are,” Powell said on ABC’s “This Week.”

He added: “Let’s take this patiently. Let’s take it with deliberation. Let’s work with our friends and allies.”

At the same time, Powell argued against a speedy resumption of talks between the two nations, which the North Korean regime is seeking. The United States must not “appease” the government in Pyongyang by offering it concessions for violating its previous agreements, he said repeatedly.

“You don’t reward misbehavior of this kind by asking them: ‘What will it take [for] you to stop misbehaving?’ ” Powell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Powell’s flurry of television spots -- he appeared on all five Sunday morning network news shows -- underscored the extraordinary international pressures on the administration, which simultaneously faces the possibility of war in Iraq and a nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.

The United States and other countries have expressed concern over North Korea’s efforts to restart the Yongbyon energy facility, which is capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. North Korea has claimed that the plant, which has been closed for eight years, will be used for producing electricity, but the Bush administration disputes that. North Korean officials last week escalated tensions by ordering nuclear inspectors from the United Nations out of the country.

In 1994, the United States agreed to provide much-needed fuel oil, plus two nuclear reactors designed to produce only electrical power, to North Korea if Pyongyang halted a program that could have led to the development of nuclear weapons. North Korea then shut down the Yongbyon plant.

Powell said Sunday that North Korea secretly started a program to enrich uranium in the late 1990s. U.S. officials learned of the development in October, and the administration halted the fuel oil shipments.

On the subject of Iraq, Powell said that war was not inevitable. The regime in Baghdad, he said, has shown some cooperation with the U.N. weapons inspectors who are searching for evidence to determine whether Iraq has secretly been developing weapons of mass destruction.

In the event of war, Powell said the United States would try to secure the nation’s oil fields, saying that they are the property of the Iraqi people and should not be destroyed by the country’s leaders as part of a “scorched earth” policy to damage Iraq’s infrastructure.

“They have been cooperating with the inspectors, and we’ll see if that cooperation continues,” he said on ABC. “There’s been some resistance in recent days.... We’ll see whether that attitude of cooperation continues.”

Powell also declared that the United States would try to prevent Iraq from becoming splintered if the regime of Saddam Hussein is toppled. Asked about the possibility that Iraq would fragment into ministates dominated by different Muslim sects and ethnic Kurds, he told “Face the Nation” that the risk is genuine.

“We are sensitive to it. We do not believe that would be in the interest of anyone,” he said, adding, “We are committed to keeping Iraq intact.” But while the Bush administration has made clear that military action against Iraq is very possible, Powell suggested that the dispute with North Korea might be solved by “a different set of tools.”

Referring to the tensions with North Korea, Powell noted that “military action is always an option, but it is not an option that is in the forefront of our thinking right now, because it doesn’t seem necessary or appropriate.... There are no forces being put on alert on either side.”

He pointed to a practical argument against a U.S. military strike on the Yongbyon facility: “It’s now a functioning facility, so it would be a dirty hit if we were to go after it,” he told “Fox News Sunday,” alluding to the risks of radiation and civilian victims.

Beyond that, he expressed hope that the nuclear issue could be defused with the aid of the international community, pointing specifically to China, Japan, South Korea and Russia as having an interest in the outcome. On “Fox News Sunday,” he maintained that the international message to North Korea was clear: “ ‘You’re moving in the wrong direction. This is not the right thing to do.’ ”

Administration officials also suggested that North Korea had the ability to end the international chorus of disapproval. A senior White House official said that Powell was only trying to remind North Koreans that “the international community is standing ready to help them, but they have to change course and show a willingness to end their nuclear weapons program.”

Democrats on Sunday urged the White House to begin talks with North Korea. The administration has opposed negotiations, contending that talks are not the appropriate response to North Korea’s behavior.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), outgoing chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said President Bush was wrong to have cut off talks with North Korea when he took office.

“We should not be afraid to talk,” Levin said on ABC. “We’re not going to negotiate giving them anything for doing what they already promised to do, but they should hear from our lips how significant their missteps have been. We’re not going to appease them, but there’s nothing wrong with talking to them.”

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman ( D-Conn.), another member of the Armed Services Committee, agreed: “We ought to be confident enough of our strength -- and we are, after all, the strongest nation in the world -- to go right back to direct negotiations with them,” he said on CBS. “And I’d put the military option on the table as part of those negotiations.”

The U.S. and North Korea have various channels through which to communicate, including third-party countries.

Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency has scheduled a meeting next Monday in which the board of governors could refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

In addition, James A. Kelly, assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is expected to visit South Korea in mid-January, where he will meet with individuals who have contacts in North Korea. It was Kelly who first learned in October that North Korea had resumed its nuclear program.

Officials in Pyongyang have called on U.S. officials to sit down and negotiate a resolution.

“It is quite self-evident that dialogue is impossible without sitting face to face, and a peaceful settlement of the issue would be unthinkable without dialogue,” said a government spokesman quoted by KCNA, the North’s state-run news agency.

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Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Waco, Texas, contributed to this report.