President Bush condemned North Korea on Monday for claiming it had conducted an underground nuclear test, but signaled there would be no military response, at least for now.
“The United States remains committed to diplomacy,” Bush said in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. He also reaffirmed “our commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.”
But Pyongyang’s test, if verified, would conclusively prove, for the first time, that the peninsula is no longer nuclear-free. Instead of denying the underground test, North Korea bragged about it.
“The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent,” said Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency. “It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA (Korean People’s Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability.”
The international community was expected to slap economic sanctions on North Korea’s reclusive communist dictatorship. South Korea on Monday canceled a shipment of aid supplies to North Korea.
The United States has proposed elements to be included in a sanctions resolution, said John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, after meeting with members of the U.N. Security Council.
“All 15 council members participated,” Bolton said. “And that’s remarkable in the Security Council, as some of you may know, to have a unanimous condemnation of the North Korean test. No one defended it. No one even came close to defending it.”
Bush said the U.S. was working to confirm the authenticity of North Korea’s claim.
“Such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security,” he said. “The United States condemns this provocative act. Once again North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond.”
Bush called North Korea a “leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria.”
“The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable of the consequences of such action,” he added.
