President Bush, pressed Friday on whether he had been tough enough toward North Korea, defended his search for a diplomatic response to the communist nation’s test-firing of seven missiles this week.
Asked during a news conference in Chicago why he had sent troops to Iraq but not North Korea, Bush said he had exhausted diplomatic channels before toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein. The effort to rid North Korea of its missiles and nuclear weapons, he said, is not so far along.
“The problem with diplomacy,” the president said, is that “it takes a while to get something done. If you’re acting alone, you can move quickly. When you’re rallying world opinion and trying to come up with the right language at the United Nations … it takes a while.”
At the UN, Japan introduced a draft Security Council resolution Friday that would impose sanctions on North Korea for its missile tests and also order a halt to its development of ballistic missiles. The move was backed by the U.S., Britain and France but quickly raised objections from Russia and China, both of which wield veto power on the Security Council.
During his news conference, Bush declined to say whether he had ruled out military force as an option against North Korea.
“We want to solve all problems diplomatically,” he said. “That’s our first choice.”
North Korea fired seven missiles Wednesday, six of them short-range missiles that dropped harmlessly into the Sea of Japan. The seventh was a long-range missile that malfunctioned less than a minute after its launch and also fell into the Sea of Japan.
Bush was asked whether defense officials had determined where the trajectory of that missile, which had the theoretical capacity to reach the continental U.S., would have taken it.
“I still can’t give you any better answer than yesterday,” he replied.
Asked whether U.S. missile defenses could have intercepted the North Korean missile if it had traveled far enough, the president said, “I think we had a reasonable chance of shooting it down.”
At the UN, Japan’s draft resolution to impose sanctions on the Pyongyang regime drew immediate criticism from China, The Associated Press reported.
“If this resolution is put to a vote, definitely there will be no unity in the Security Council,” China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said. However, he refused to say whether China would use its veto to sink the resolution or abstain.
Japan’s Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said he wanted a vote on the draft Saturday if possible, yet he and other diplomats said negotiations were continuing.
That raised the possibility that the decision to introduce the resolution was, in part, a negotiating tactic meant to win concessions from China and Russia.
Diplomats and U.S. officials also left the door open for more talks. One senior U.S. official said it was unlikely the draft would be voted on over the weekend because diplomats want to give China, the North’s main ally, time to talk to Pyongyang.
Chinese officials said a delegation would go to Pyongyang early next week to discuss the issue.
“There is a hint that states want to see what the Chinese can do,” the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the strategy had not been made public.
More Top Picks Best Red Light Therapy Panels For Face