N. Korea Dares World, Goes Nuclear

Bush calls for swift action on North Korea bomb test

Washington – US President George W Bush Monday condemned North Korea’s possible test of a nuclear bomb, saying it posed an extreme threat to world security and calling for immediate actions by the international community.

His comments came shortly before the UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea and warned ‘strong and swift’ measures would follow to prevent further testing.

The council adopted the statement in a near record 30-minutes time, and resumed their meeting to sort out specifics of the UN reaction. The US, France and Britain support a Chapter 7 resolution that provides for the use of force, but China and Russia do not.

In his televised remarks, Bush said he had talked to the leaders of China, South Korea, Russia and Japan in the early morning hours, and ‘all of us agreed’ to condemn North Korea and push for an immediate UN response.

Bush, who condemned North Korea’s actions, said however that the US remains committed to diplomacy…

The US was still working to confirm North Korea’s claim to have carried out the test, but ‘such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security,’ Bush said in televised remarks.

Seismologists in Norway and at the Vienna-based Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization Japan and South Korea reported they detected the underground blast, but US officials are still trying to determine the nature of the explosion.

‘The North Korean regime remains one of the world’s leading proliferators of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria,’ Bush said.

Referring to worries by the international community that an economically desperate North Korea is also selling nuclear technology to terrorist groups, Bush said Washington would ‘hold North Korea accountable’ for any attacks on the US resulting from exporting such lethal materials and knowledge to ‘states and non-state’ entities.

Bush said Pyongyang was depriving its people of ‘prosperity and better relations with the world’ by turning down economic incentives offered during four years of intense negotiations with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US.

‘Once again, North Korea has defied the will of the international community and the international community will respond,’ Bush said.