Rhode Island's two U.S. senators yesterday charged the Bush administration with being inconsistent in its handling of the nuclear threats posed by Iraq and now North Korea.
The United States sought international condemnation and is preparing for a possible war with Iraq because, the Bush administration has said, it may soon pose a nuclear threat and may cultivate other weapons of mass destruction.
Although North Korea's restarted nuclear program may produce a nuclear arsenal within months, the administration's response seems directed more toward economic isolation than international diplomacy, said Democratic Sen. Jack Reed and Republican Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee.
"First the administration has to recognize this is a serious crisis and they have to respond to it seriously and consistently," said Reed, the incoming ranking member on the Senate's strategic subcommittee on armed services.
"I think they should go to the U.N. with the same kind of gusto they went with respect to Iraq and have the Security Council go on record against North Korea," Reed said.
Chafee agreed.
"We have to be consistent," Chafee said, "if we are going to build trust with fellow countries around the world." And what Chafee has seen of Mr. Bush's evolving policy on North Korea so far "concerns me."
Chafee also says Mr. Bush should take the matter to the United Nations. "Give them a chance; that's what it was formed for. Build an alliance and punish those who do not conform."
North Korea revealed recently that it was restarting its nuclear program. It reactivated another nuclear facility, removed monitoring devices and ordered U.N. inspectors out of the country.
North Korea said it was taking the actions in part because a 1994 nonproliferation agreement had broken down. Under the pact, the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union promised North Korea oil and nuclear power stations for civilian use in return for a freeze on its plutonium-based nuclear arms program.
Reed says the United States and the other nations kept their part of the deal. But North Korea wants more.
"Their economic system has been a failure, it's a totalitarian regime, they are inept at commerce but pretty good at extortion, so some of this is what's going on."
Over the weekend, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell refused to characterize the situation in North Korea as a crisis.
Powell ruled out military threats against North Korea as counterproductive and said the administration had opted to pursue economic isolation instead.
Reed and Chafee said regional powers are particularly important to diffusing the growing concern.
"I think China is the key," Reed said. "You have to engage China and say, 'This is really a threat to you, a threat to the whole world. You don't want this to get out of hand.' "
But so far, Reed said, China, which provides aid to North Korea, has showed ambivalence.
"They don't want nuclear weapons on the peninsula, but then again, they don't think they want to see a unified Korea. So they are playing this: 'We'll give them [North Korea] enough where they won't be a threat to us but they'll be an irritant to the United States and the world.' "
