"I made it very clear to north Korea that in order for us to have relations with them, that we want to know, are they developing weapons of mass destruction?" Bush said. "And they ought to stop proliferating," he added, referring to north Korea's export sales of missiles.

Bush's demand followed a similar threat against the government of Iraq, demanding that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein "let inspectors back into his country, to show us he is not developing weapons of mass destruction." A reporter asked: "What will be the consequences?" Bush answered: "He'll find out." Governments that develop "weapons of mass destruction that will be used to terrorize nations," he said, will be "held accountable."

Another reporter inquired: "I'm just asking if you're expanding your definition to countries who don't just harbor terrorists, but also develop such weapons?" Bush replied: "Have I expanded the definition? I've always had that definition, as far as I'm concerned."

The previous week, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control John Bolton had accused Pyongyang of developing biological weapons. The government of south Korea chimed in, claiming that its neighbor possesses up to 5,000 tons of anthrax, smallpox, and other such substances. Neither produced any evidence for the accusations.

Responding to the White House statements, a north Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson described Bush's demands as "unreasonable." The November 29 statement added that "north Korea cannot sit idle" while Washington insists on "raising questions over our human rights record...and demanding an inspection of weapons of mass destruction."

Washington has stepped up its propaganda war in spite of Pyongyang's condemnation of the September 11 attacks, and its declarations of support for United Nations treaties that outlaw financial support for alleged "terrorist" organizations.

Commentators in the big-business media have noted Washington's stance. The November 29 Wall Street Journal listed the workers state, which has defended itself against imperialist hostility for more than five decades, as a possible "next candidate" for Washington's "campaign against terrorism," along with the Philippines, Colombia, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, and Iran.

While Iraq is at the top of the list of likely targets for "Phase II of the war," wrote David Sanger in the November 25 New York Times, "there is a hint of talk about another secretive, totalitarian nation with a troublesome history of nuclear and germ warfare: North Korea." Describing the sum total of that "history," Sanger mentioned north Korea's sale of missile technology to Pakistan, and its operation of a nuclear reprocessing plant that the CIA asserts may have produced enough nuclear material to use in a few nuclear weapons.

The journalist described "one scenario" in which "the United States...gives countries long suspected of hiding their nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs short deadlines to open up to intensive international inspections. If they refuse, as they have in the past, Washington will quickly raise the pressure, apply sanctions through the United Nations, and vaguely threaten that at some point diplomacy will give way to bombs."  
 
More formidable than Taliban
Should Pyongyang continue to resist Washington's demands, wrote Sanger, quoting a high-ranking administration official, "'they might be urged to consult the Taliban' about the risks of stiff-arming Washington." However, the Financial Times quoted diplomats in Seoul, south Korea, who pointed out that north Korea, which has substantial, well-armed and trained armed forces, along with millions of pro-revolution workers and peasants, "would be a far more formidable opponent than the Taliban."

Talks between the two governments on the Korean peninsula began again in September after a six-month hiatus that followed a freeze on diplomatic initiatives by President Clinton and hostile statements by Bush. Pyongyang withdrew from the talks after Seoul put its military and police forces on alert following the attacks in Washington and New York. Later that month south Korean soldiers fired warning shots at north Korean counterparts who had allegedly entered a no-go area in the Demilitarized Zone.

On November 22 the south Korean military test-fired a short-range missile described by officials "as part of a program to develop new missiles capable of hitting targets in most of North Korea," reported the Agence-France Presse. Four days later soldiers exchanged shots across the border. There were no casualties.

These probes notwithstanding, government officials in Seoul have expressed concern over Washington's belligerence toward the north. "United States pressure is disturbing. The situation is building toward a crisis," said Kim Jae Il, a spokesperson for the Millennium Democratic Party of President Kim Dae Jung. JoongAng Ilbo, a major daily newspaper that criticizes President Kim's "Sunshine policy" of official support for talks with Pyongyang, said, "The United States should not drive North Korea into a corner with strong words or tactics."

The United States maintains the division of the two Koreas with 37,000 heavily armed troops stations in the south, backed by the nuclear-armed U.S. Pacific fleet. Ever since the 1950-53 Korean War, the people in north Korea, where capitalism has been overturned, have defended their revolutionary conquests, and continued to demand withdrawal of the U.S. forces and unification of the country.  
 
 
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