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U.S. 'ready for any N. Korea contingencies'
By CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is prepared to deal with "any contingencies" with respect to North Korea, the White House has said in response to Pyonyang's threat that it could strike U.S. forces. North Korea warned Thursday that any pre-emptive attack by the United States on its nuclear facilities will spark a "full-scale war" on the Korean Peninsula. The secretive communist state also said that pre-emptive strikes were not the "exclusive right of the U.S.". "Obviously the United States is very prepared with the best plans for any contingencies," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "This type of talk and the type of action North Korea has engaged in, and is engaging in, only hurts North Korea to further isolate the North Korean people from the modern world, to lead to a world in which people are starved and they are denied basic human rights, and that's the real cause for concern," he said. As the United States continues to make its case for why Iraq poses a threat to America and its allies, North Korea has been ramping up its rhetoric about its nuclear program, saying earlier this week they are restarting a nuclear power plant at Yongbyon. Thursday's statement made in North Korea's state-run media and monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, comes one day after Pyongyang reported it had reactivated its nuclear facilities, including its main Yongbyon plant. Several nations fear Yongbyon will be used to extract weapons-grade plutonium, but so far no government has publicly verified the plant is back in operation. "If the United States launches a surprise attack on our peaceful nuclear facilities, it will spark a full-scale war," said Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's main state-run newspaper, in a commentary carried by Radio Pyongyang. The commentary accused Washington of planning to beef up its military presence in the region and launch pre-emptive strikes. Pyongyang insists its nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes and says it reactivated its main nuclear complex to generate much needed electricity. The Yongbyon facility has been dormant since a 1994 deal with the United States, but the North announced in December that it would revive it, amid a dispute with Washington over its nuclear program. Fleischer said the Bush administration would continue to deal with North Korea diplomatically. "Much of this rattling has taken place in previous decades, in previous times. And this president is dedicated to dealing with this and to do so diplomatically along with allies in the region," he said. U.S.Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage earlier this week told a Senate panel he believes direct negotiations with North Korea could come soon. The Bush administration has resisted direct talks because, they said, it would be giving in to "nuclear blackmail." Pyongyang has asked for a nonaggression treaty and a resumption of fuel oil shipments the United States and key allies cut off in the fall. Fuel rodsThose shipments were cut after discovering North Korea has a enriched uranium program, on the grounds that it violated a 1994 agreement. Although North Korea has never admitted to developing a nuclear weapon, the U.S. administration believes North Korea has "one or two nuclear weapons." Alongside reactivating mothballed nuclear reactors, in recent months Pyongyang has also ejected U.N. nuclear inspectors, and pulled out of a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The Yongbyon facility was the center of a suspected nuclear weapons program in the 1990s. It includes a building that stores 8,000 spent fuel rods and a reprocessing laboratory, where the North Koreans can extract weapons-grade plutonium from the spent fuel rods. Last week, U.S. officials said spy satellites had detected covered trucks apparently taking on cargo at the storage facility where spent nuclear fuel rods are stored. If the rods are processed, enough plutonium can be extracted to make several nuclear weapons, U.S. officials have said. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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