Bush Downplays Concession to N. Korea ; Seeks to Soothe Conservative Anger

By DEB RIECHMANN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON It seemed dramatic. President Bush stepped into the Rose Garden to announce plans to remove North Korea from the U.S. terrorism blacklist and ease sanctions against a country he once branded as part of his “axis of evil.”

But just as soon as he said it, he played down its significance.

Bush said what the U.S. was giving North Korea in exchange for its long-awaited accounting of its secretive nuclear program was largely symbolic that they would have little impact on North Korea’s financial and diplomatic isolation.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates chimed in. “The reality is that there are so many other sanctions on North Korea because of its other behaviors that there’s really no practical effect of taking them off the terrorist list,” Gates said.

So did National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. “I will tell you, and the North Koreans understand that the degree of easing of sanctions is relatively minor.”

The White House didn’t want Bush’s announcement to be viewed as the U.S. bowing to the communist regime. It also helped temper outrage from conservative Republicans, who want the U.S. to take an even tougher stance against the regime.

“It’s shameful,” said John Bolton, Bush’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “This represents the final collapse of Bush’s foreign policy.”

“Profound disappointment” was the reaction of Rep. Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, R-Fla.

Bush critics said even symbolism was too much to give to a regime that can’t be trusted, but Bush insisted he was not giving in to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. “If they don’t fulfill their promises, more restrictions will be placed on them,” Bush said, just a few hours after North Korea handed over 60 pages of documentation about its nuclear past to Chinese officials in Beijing.

The North Koreans declared less about their nuclear programs than what the Bush administration initially sought. And they disclosed nothing about their stockpile of nuclear weapons, suspected uranium enrichment program or alleged role in helping Syria build a reactor.

Still, Bush called the declaration a positive step in negotiations with a fickle government that have been stop-and-go for years. Bush emphasized that he was aware that Pyongyang had lied about its nuclear capabilities before.

“I’m under no illusions,” Bush said. “This isn’t the end of the process. This is the beginning of the process of action for action.” He rattled off a list of ongoing U.S. concerns about North Korea human rights abuses, uranium enrichment, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programs and the threat North Korea poses to its neighbors.

Then he announced he was erasing trade sanctions imposed on North Korea under the Trading With the Enemy Act, and notifying Congress that, in 45 days, the administration intends to take North Korea off the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

“If North Korea continues to make the right choices, it can repair its relationship with the international community,” he said. “If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and its partners in the six-party talks will act accordingly.”

The White House announcement marked a turnabout of the hostile U.S. policy toward impoverished North Korea. Better relations with Washington could eventually improve dire economic conditions for the country’s 23 million people who suffer food shortages and blackouts.

To demonstrate that it is serious about forgoing its nuclear weapons, North Korea planned the televised destruction Friday of a 65-foot-tall cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The tower is a key element of the reactor but blowing it up with the world watching has little practical meaning because the reactor has already been nearly disabled.

Other lawmakers from both parties took the position that the declaration, though six months late, was better than nothing.

“Although more work remains to verifiably end North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, this important achievement for the Bush administration is the direct result of painstaking, multilateral diplomacy,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who has been largely critical of Bush’s foreign policy.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said progress on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program remains incomplete.

“But the regime’s nuclear declaration is the latest reminder that, despite President Bush’s once bellicose rhetoric, engaging our enemies can pay dividends,” he said.

(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.