Bush warns North Korea on possible nuclear test

By Tabassum Zakaria

CAMP DAVID, Md (Reuters) – President George W. Bush on
Friday warned that North Korea would pose a threat to the world
if it tested a nuclear bomb for the first time, following
reports that the reclusive government was considering such a
move.

Bush also pressed participants in six-party talks to
persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear-weapons program,
while a senior U.S. official played down the chances of an
early nuclear test.

“If North Korea were to conduct a test, it’s just a
constant reminder for people in the neighborhood, in
particular, that North Korea poses a threat,” Bush said at the
Camp David presidential retreat. “We expect our friends and
those sitting around the table with us to act in such a manner
as to help rid the world of the threat.”

ABC News on Thursday reported that a U.S. intelligence
agency had observed suspicious vehicle movement at a suspected
North Korean test site. It quoted an unidentified senior State
Department official saying a test was a “real possibility.”

Bush refused to confirm or deny the report, saying he would
not talk about intelligence information. State Department
spokesman Tom Casey declined to comment.

South Korea’s point man for the North said he was skeptical
of the reports and U.S. officials have said they had no new
evidence of such a plan.

“There was a lot less to that report than meets the eye,”
said one senior U.S. official.

Analysts said North Korea could be trying an extreme form
of saber-rattling to force the international community, and
Washington in particular, into making concessions to the poor
and isolated state.

North Korea lashed out at the United States on Friday for
holding annual joint military drills with South Korea next
week, saying the drills are “driving the situation of the
Korean Peninsula to the brink of a war.”

The July 5 missile tests conducted by North Korea were
widely seen as a repeat of the North Korean government’s
often-used tactic to grab international attention but whose key
aim — to win direct talks with the United States — failed.

“Many of the experts … have been concerned about the
possible options on the part of North Korea, including nuclear
tests or other forms of military provocation,” said Kim
Sung-han, head of North American studies at South Korea’s
Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

Pyongyang has accused Washington of trying to topple its
government with a crackdown on its finances and has demanded an
end to that effort before returning to international talks on
its nuclear-weapons program.

Analysts say the crackdown is causing North Korea’s
leadership difficulties, but the United States has refused to
budge or hold direct talks with North Korea outside the
six-country nuclear negotiations.

The talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and
the United States have been stalled since November.

“It’ll be a nightmare for China if it happens. It’ll mean
efforts at six-party talks in the past three years (amount to)
nothing,” Zhu Feng, director of the international security
program at Peking University, said about a potential test.

Neighboring China is the North’s main benefactor. Officials
in Japan and China would not comment on the report.

North Korea has been working on nuclear weapons for years
and declared itself a nuclear-weapons power in February 2005
without testing.

It probably has the technology to build a bomb and enough
fissile material for at least six to eight nuclear weapons,
proliferation experts have said. But they say no one knows for
sure whether it has actually built a nuclear weapon.

Last year, activity at suspected North Korean test sites
led some analysts to believe the secretive state was preparing
to test a nuclear device, but nothing happened.

(With additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Jack Kim
in Seoul, Paul Eckert and Sue Pleming in Washington, and
Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing)