No Solo Talks With N. Korea, Bush Insists

President Bush rejected calls Wednesday for one-on-one talks with North Korea and indicated he was not contemplating military action in response to Pyongyang’s announcement this week that it had conducted a nuclear test.

Bush, speaking at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, reaffirmed his long-held stance that the U.S. would not tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea. But he emphasized that his focus was on the use of diplomacy through multinational talks.

The president’s comments followed a threat Wednesday by North Korea to conduct more nuclear tests, while Japan unilaterally banned North Korean nationals and exports from entering Japan for the next six months.

At the United Nations, where the Bush administration is pursuing sanctions against the North Korean regime, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Bush to consider bilateral negotiations.

North Korea’s statement, issued through its U.N. mission, warned that sanctions could trigger “physical countermeasures” and would be considered “as a declaration of war.”

The remarks by Bush were his first public comments on North Korea since the regime in Pyongyang announced Monday morning that it had carried out a successful nuclear test. U.S. officials said they were still trying to determine whether it was a nuclear device that North Korea tested or some other large explosive. Whichever it was, Bush said, “this claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and stability.”

However, the president appeared to go out of his way to avoid inflammatory language, even as he insisted that North Korea must stand by previous commitments to dismantle its nuclear program.

The toned-down approach seemed intended both for potential partners at the United Nations, and, fewer than four weeks before the midterm U.S. congressional elections, for an American electorate weary of the Iraq war. It also appeared to reflect a dearth of palatable options after weeks of harsh rhetoric by the administration, since military action to destroy North Korea’s nuclear facilities could prove difficult and could also result in a regionwide war.

“We want to make sure that we solve this problem diplomatically,” Bush said, repeating the word “diplomatically” seven more times and using the term “diplomacy” on an additional 10 occasions during the 62-minute news conference.

But Bush struck a defensive tone in explaining his opposition to direct negotiations. Echoing comments by other Republicans in recent days, he cited the one-on-one approach to North Korea taken by former President Clinton resulting in a 1994 agreement that collapsed in 2002, two years after Bush took office.

“Bilateral relations didn’t work,” Bush said, although adding, “I appreciate the efforts of previous administrations.”

The 1994 agreement froze North Korea’s plutonium activities and mothballed its nuclear plants, putting its nuclear program under international inspectors. In exchange, Washington agreed to provide fuel oil and build two light-water breeder reactors. In 2002, after Bush’s inclusion of North Korea in his “axis of evil,” North Korea admitted it was still working to develop nuclear weapons.

Bush said he learned from that experience that it takes several countries to influence the reclusive and unpredictable government in Pyongyang. Consequently, he proposed a system of six-nation talks involving South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, in addition to the United States and North Korea, which began in 2003.

“It was said that the Bush administration goes it alone too often in the world, which I always thought was a bogus claim to begin with,” Bush said. “And now, all of a sudden, people are saying the Bush administration ought to be going alone with North Korea. But it didn’t work in the past, is my point. The strategy did not work.”

A spokesman for Clinton responded Wednesday that Republicans were attempting to “rewrite history.”

After the 1994 agreement, North Korea produced no nuclear weapons during Clinton’s time in the White House, and the Clinton approach was endorsed by Colin L. Powell, then Bush’s secretary of State, in 2001, said Ben Yarrow of the Clinton Foundation.

“For eight years during the Clinton administration, there was no new plutonium production, no nuclear weapons tests and therefore no additional nuclear weapons developed on President Clinton’s watch,” Yarrow said.

“The Clinton administration’s approach has been turned on its head, and North Korea now has demonstrated its nuclear weapons capability to the world,” Yarrow added.

At the United Nations, Annan urged North Korea not to escalate the situation any further, and said Washington should talk directly to Pyongyang.

“I have always argued that we should talk to parties whose behavior we want to change, whose behavior we want to influence. And from that point of view I believe that the U.S. and North Korea should talk,” Annan said. “Whether it is done in the context of the six-party talks or separately, one must talk.”

The U.N. Security Council continued negotiations on a sanctions resolution, aiming for a vote Friday. The North Korean government statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday declared that “if the U.S. increases pressure ... [North Korea] will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of a war.”

China said it would support “prudent” sanctions focused mainly on banning the transfer of nuclear and missile technology, but still opposed a provision that could open the door to military action to enforce the sanctions.

China would also support a travel ban for senior North Korean officials, diplomats said. Russian negotiators said they had no instructions from Moscow on the latest revision, but Russia was expected to vote with China.

The U.S.-backed resolution includes a financial freeze similar to current American economic sanctions to shut down alleged counterfeiting, money laundering and drug trafficking that has reportedly helped fund North Korea’s weapons programs.

The resolution, cosponsored by Japan, also includes specific provisions to ensure that civilians and aid groups would not be directly affected by the punitive measures.

Negotiations are stalled on several points, including a measure authorizing the inspection of all cargo going in and out of North Korea in an effort to detect weapons-related material.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government declared that it would not wait for the Security Council to act against Pyongyang. It announced its six-month ban on North Korean nationals and exports, which would cut off some of North Korea’s access to cash and bartered goods.

The move was mostly symbolic. Japan’s trade with North Korea is minuscule compared with the economic ties Pyongyang has with China and South Korea, the key lifelines that many observers argue are all that sustain dictator Kim Jong Il’s regime.

Tokyo had already shut down the flow of money from North Korean nationals living in Japan to friends and relatives back home.

North Korea threatened more nuclear tests Wednesday, saying Washington’s squeeze on the North Korean economy and its global financial transactions “compelled” the country to test-fire a nuclear weapon.

“The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy toward our country,” said Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s No. 2 official, in an interview with Japan’s Kyodo News service.

“If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that.”

The pressure Kim cited includes the U.S.-led clampdown on foreign banks that do business with the North Korean regime. Washington accuses the North Korean government of state-sponsored financial crimes including money laundering and the counterfeiting of American currency.

At his news conference in Washington, Bush blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Il for the failure of diplomacy.

“It’s the intransigence of the North Korean leader that speaks volumes about the process,” Bush said. “It is his unwillingness to choose a way forward for his country -- a better way forward for his country. It is his decisions.”

Bush said the six-nation approach to talks protected Washington from being singled out as what amounts to a “fall guy.”

Otherwise, Bush said, “we become the issue.”

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james.gerstenzang@latimes.com

maggie.farley@latimes.com

Gerstenzang reported from Washington and Farley from the United Nations. Times staff writers Bruce Wallace in Tokyo and Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this report.