Plan Is to Pressure North Korea

President Bush believes North Korea’s disclosure that it has a secret nuclear weapons program is “troubling, sobering news,” his spokesman said Thursday, but the administration and many members of Congress insisted that Iraq remains the primary threat facing the United States.

A day after U.S. officials reported that North Korea had acknowledged the bomb-building program, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush intends to “seek a peaceful solution” through diplomacy to stop the North’s nuclear program.

Officials said the president plans to talk to heads of state and government about the issue at a gathering next week in Mexico City, and with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Oct. 29 during a summit at the Bush ranch near Crawford, Texas.

Washington was jolted by news that North Korea had secretly forged ahead with an enriched-uranium program, despite an 8-year-old pledge to drop efforts to develop nuclear weapons in return for aid and a chance for improved relations.

The development threatens the nuclear balance in East Asia and adds a new challenge for an administration that is already struggling to root out Al Qaeda and Taliban foes in Afghanistan, prepare for a possible attack on Iraq and cope with the worldwide terrorist threat.

A senior Bush administration official said the U.S. goal is a diplomatic initiative that will bring pressure to bear on North Korea from its neighbors to end its program.

“We’re not going to nuke them; we’re going to use pressure,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Japanese and South Korean officials indicated Thursday that they too prefer to negotiate an end to the weapons program through diplomatic channels.

U.S. officials believe that North Korea’s enriched uranium program is at least 2 years old but may have been going on since shortly after a 1994 deal in which the North pledged not to carry on nuclear arms development.

The senior administration official said U.S. authorities believe the North Koreans thought they could carry on with the secret program even as the United States gave them civilian nuclear power facilities, oil and other benefits agreed upon in the deal.

“They thought they could have their cake and eat it too,” he said. “But they can’t.”

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said he believes the North Koreans not only have a nuclear weapons program but also have “one or two” nuclear bombs. While CIA reports and some military officials have made similar suggestions, Rumsfeld is the highest-ranking official ever to make such an assertion.

Even so, Rumsfeld said in response to a reporter’s question that Iraq remains the most significant threat. “Iraq has unique characteristics that distinguish it and that suggest that it has nominated itself ... for special attention because of the threat of what they’re doing.”

Rumsfeld said he saw no point in conducting inspections in North Korea, since the country has acknowledged a program that would constitute a breach of four international treaties it has signed.

He also disagreed with some analysts who have taken it as a positive sign that the North has owned up to its violations.

“I don’t think there’s any way in the world anyone could say it’s a good sign,” Rumsfeld said.

U.S. lawmakers reacted with outrage to news of the North Korean weapons program.

Some called for a reassessment of American policy toward North Korea, and some urged a program of economic sanctions and political pressure to compel the Stalinist regime to halt the program. But many key members of Congress who spoke on the issue seemed to support the administration’s plan to cautiously consider its options and avoid becoming distracted from the effort to deal with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said North Korea’s “reckless brinksmanship must be met with firm and united resolve.” But he stressed joint action on the threat, saying that South Korea, Japan, Russia and China “must play a vital role in the next few weeks in reducing the regional tensions created by these violations.”

Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said that “obviously, North Korea is a matter of concern. But clearly, the one we have to deal with immediately is Iraq.”

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on North Korea “to immediately end its nuclear weapons program” and to come into compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it signed. Biden added that he commended the administration for its plan to work with East Asian allies in seeking a solution.

Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) called on North Korea to halt its development of unconventional weapons and to open up for international inspections.

At the same time, a few members called for more forceful action, some arguing that the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea was more menacing than that of Iraq. “We regard the North Korea weapons of mass destruction threat to be at least as serious as the threat posed by Iraq,” Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said in a letter to Bush.

“We urge you to take a strong and vigorous response to this threat before it is too late.”

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz), joining the lawmakers at a news conference, urged the administration to “come down very hard” on North Korea.

The lawmakers called on the administration to request urgent action by the U.N. Security Council to condemn North Korea for violating its nuclear nonproliferation commitments and provide for an “appropriate response” if the North’s leader, Kim Jong Il, fails to comply.

They also called on the administration to cut off all economic aid, other than food and medicine.

In New York, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the U.S. was not contemplating the sort of military assault it has been threatening against Iraq.

“We’re not planning anything of that nature right now,” he said as he emerged from a meeting with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. “We have a serious situation in Northeast Asia.... North Korea has some explaining to do to the international community.”

One expert on North Korea’s nuclear capabilities said that if containment fails, the North Koreans could easily reactivate the plutonium stockpiles that they put under guard as part of the 1994 agreement with the international community to freeze their nuclear program.

“We know they have enough spent fuel [to make] another five to six weapons within a period of six months,” said Mitchell Reiss, now dean of international affairs at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. came across the information that revealed the North Korean program last summer.

He said U.S. officials had delayed their disclosure of the program for 12 days after the North Koreans acknowledged it because “basically we looked for an opportunity to conduct consultations with our friends and allies in private” ahead of time.

Another administration official also acknowledged that North Korea may have gotten key components for its nuclear weapons from another country.

While the official declined to discuss which country may have been the source, many analysts believe the chief suspects are China, Russia or Pakistan.

If Pakistan was the source, it could mean a major new complication in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, of which Pakistan has become an important part.

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Times staff writers Robin Wright in New York, John Hendren in Washington and Tyler Marshall at the United Nations contributed to this report.