Silence

George Gedda : The Oregonian
Administration officials are beginning to discuss the possibility of referring the Noth Korea issue to the U.N. Security Council.

The objective would be to impose international sanctions to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to abandon his weapons program.

In Sapporo, Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi came down firmly against that idea Friday. He said economic sanctions against North Korea could end any possibility that Pyongyang might rejoin the six-nation talks and end any chance of their success.

Jack Pritchard, a Korea expert who left the State Department in 2003 because of disagreement with U.S. policies, said North Korea may have decided against resuming the six-party process because of the absence of positive U.S. signals recently.

In the second Bush administration, "the lineup is looking pretty bleak" for North Korea, Pritchard said. Rice included North Korea as one of six "outposts of tyranny," during her confirmation hearing three weeks ago, Pritchard noted.

He also said North Korea may have concluded that keeping its nuclear weapons may be the safest course. He pointed out that India and Pakistan have good relations with the United States and other nations despite the nuclear testing both carried out in 1998.

On the other hand, Pritchard said, the United States attacked non-nuclear Iraq in 2003. The sequence of events, he said, may fall into the category of "lessons learned" for North Korea.

Han Sung Ryol, a senior North Korean diplomat at the United Nations, urged a direct dialogue with the United States in an interview with a South Korean newspaper.

The United States said Friday it had no interest in resuming direct discussions on North Korea's nuclear weapons program.