Simon Tisdall (Guardian Utd): Opting for diplomacy over North Korea

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Friday February 4

Opting for diplomacy over North Korean nuclear threat
By Simon Tisdall

The prospect of renewed conflict in the Korean peninsula receded yesterday after President George Bush eschewed further hostile rhetoric against North Korea in his State of the Union address.

But the direction and methodology of Mr Bush's overall drive to halt proliferation of weapons of mass destruction remained unpredictable. "We must confront regimes that continue to harbour terrorists and pursue weapons of mass death," he said in a clear warning to Iran. Mr Bush's only reference to Pyongyang came in the context of a pledge to "work closely with governments in Asia to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions".

Mr Bush did not repeat his 2002 characterisation of North Korea as part of an "axis of evil".

Nor did he recycle last month's assertion by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, that Pyongyang was an "outpost of tyranny".

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