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U.S. to invite N. Korea's neighbors to broker deal
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration will push for regional diplomacy in response to North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday. "We're deeply concerned" about North Korea, Powell said during testimony before the House Budget Committee. "We thought we'd put the genie back in the bottle and put a cork in the bottle with respect to nuclear programs." The United States intends to include regional neighbors such as China, Japan and South Korea in diplomatic discussions with North Korea, which favors talks with the United States alone. Tensions have mounted on the Korean peninsula since last October when the United States said North Korea acknowledged pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 deal. North Korea, which denies the U.S. claim, responded by backing out of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty earlier this year, kicking out U.N. nuclear monitors and restarting a mothballed nuclear power plant in a move it said will compensate for an energy shortfall. Powell said the Bush administration is dealing with problems that were not known when the Clinton administration brokered the 1994 Framework Agreement with North Korea. "The previous administration that negotiated that was unaware -- and we were unaware for this first year of this administration -- that you had another bottle with another genie, trying to develop nuclear weapons in another way," Powell said. CIA Director George Tenet said this week that North Korea probably has "one or two plutonium-based devices." He also said North Korea's nuclear missiles have the ability to hit the West Coast of the United States. (Full story) The International Atomic Energy Agency has said North Korea is in breach of United Nations nuclear safeguards and has referred the issue to the Security Council. With the dispute heading to the U.N. Security Council, there is mounting international pressure and differing opinions on how the issue should be handled. Russia and China have criticized the decision and the United States appears reluctant to push the council to take a tough stance. (Full story) Powell said the United States will bring North Korea's neighbors to the negotiating table. "We said to North Korea, 'We are willing to talk to you, but it can't just be the U.S. and the (Democratic People's Republic of Korea).' We have to find a way to have other concerned nations involved. China is threatened. Russia is threatened. South Korea is threatened. They're all encouraging us to talk to North Korea as well," Powell told the House panel. "We're willing to do that, but we believe this time we need a regional settlement and that's what we've been pressing on the North Koreans. But the North Korean position so far has been, 'no, no, no, this is strictly an issue between the U.S. and the DPRK.' And that's the only basis they'll talk."
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