The Bush administration said Monday that it would take whatever steps are necessary to defend America against North Korea, after the Asian nation warned the United States of an “annihilating strike and a nuclear war.”
“Should North Korea take the provocative action of launching a long-range missile, the U.S. would respond appropriately, including the taking of necessary measures to protect ourselves,” State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez told The Examiner.
Vasquez was responding to North Korea’s state-run media, which warned Monday of dire consequences if the United States pre–emptively attacked a long-range missile that the North Koreans appear to be readying for a test launch.
Such an attack would trigger “an annihilating strike and a nuclear war,” said the Korean Central News Agency.
The rhetoric was shrugged off by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.
“It is a statement about what may happen if something that hasn’t happened, happened, if you follow my drift,” he said. “It is still deeply hypothetical.”
Both the White House and the State Department urged Pyongyang to return to six-party talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. They emphasized the problem should be solved diplomatically, not militarily.
“The Unites States has no intention of invading or attacking North Korea,” Vasquez said.
