Bush Radio: "After I came to office, we discovered that North Korea..."

[Human Torch]

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Earlier this week, the government of North Korea proclaimed to the world that it had conducted a successful nuclear weapons test. In response to North Korea's provocative actions, America is working with our partners in the region and in the United Nations Security Council to ensure that there are serious repercussions for the North Korean regime.

North Korea has been pursuing nuclear weapons and defying its international commitments for years. In 1993, North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The United States negotiated with North Korea and reached a bilateral agreement in 1994: North Korea committed to giving up its pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for help with peaceful nuclear power.

After I came to office, we discovered that North Korea had been violating this agreement for some time by continuing work on a covert nuclear weapons program. My administration confronted the North Korea regime with this evidence in 2002, and the North Koreans subsequently walked away from the 1994 agreement.

So my Administration decided to take a new approach. We brought together other nations in the region in an effort to resolve the situation through multilateral diplomacy. The logic behind this approach is clear: North Korea's neighbors have the most at stake, and they are North Korea's principal sources of food, energy, and trade, so it makes sense to enlist them in the effort to get the North Korean regime to end its nuclear program.

This diplomatic effort was called the Six-Party Talks, and these talks included North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. In September of last year, these diplomatic efforts resulted in a wide-ranging Joint Statement that offered a resolution to the problem and a better life for the North Korean people. In this Joint Statement, North Korea committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs. North Korea was offered the prospect of normalized relations with Japan and the United States, as well as economic cooperation in energy, trade, and investment. And the United States affirmed that we have no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and no intention to attack or invade North Korea.

Unfortunately, North Korea failed to act on its commitment. And with its actions this week, the North Korean regime has once again broken its word, provoked an international crisis, and denied its people the opportunity for a better life. We are working for a resolution to this crisis. Nations around the world, including our partners in the Six-Party Talks, agree on the need for a strong United Nations Security Council resolution that will require North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs. This resolution should also specify measures to prevent North Korea from importing or exporting nuclear or missile technologies. And it should prevent financial transactions or asset transfers that would help North Korea develop its nuclear or missile capabilities.

By passing such a resolution, we will send a clear message to the North Korean regime that its actions will not be tolerated. And we will give the nations with the closest ties to North Korea -- China and South Korea -- a framework to use their leverage to pressure Pyongyang and persuade its regime to change course.

As we pursue a diplomatic solution, we are also reassuring our allies in the region that America remains committed to their security. We have strong defense alliances with Japan and South Korea, and the United States will meet these commitments. And in response to North Korea's provocation, we will seek to increase our defense cooperation with our allies, including cooperation on ballistic missile defense to protect against North Korean aggression, and cooperation to prevent North Korea from importing or exporting nuclear or missile technologies.

Our goals remain clear: peace and security in Northeast Asia, and a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. We will do what is necessary to achieve these goals. We will support our allies in the region, we will work with the United Nations, and together we will ensure that North Korea faces real consequences if it continues down its current path.

Thank you for listening.

END

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061014.html

[LynnTheDem]

1. Bush is LYING AGAIN.

What would be shocking is if bush told a truth.

The FACTS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia-pacific/1908571.stm

[Submariner]

2. What a LYING POS

Rove is in pure scumbag form "After I came to office, we discovered that North Korea..." . You betcha! :puke:

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Lying bastard. He means after Rove/Card told him what was going on

He has no clue about anything. None whatsoever.

[Botany]

4. As posted above what a Liar.

Clinton = talks w/ N. Korea no a bombs or missiles
bush = no talks w/ N. Korea and then they make bombs and missiles

[wordpix2]

5. & what does Boosh plan to do, now that he's broken the military & brought

us to $9 trillion in debt, much of which we're borrowing from China? The US has very little leverage now, thanks to pRes. Monkeyman

[Human Torch]

6. Peter Pace, 10/13/06:

Posted October 13, 2006 |

Gen. Peter Pace

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for both the US military's mission in Iraq and US capacity to handle a threat from North Korea.

By David Cook

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1014/p00s01-usmb.html

While Iraq is placing significant demands on the US military, Pace said that the nation has sufficient resources to fight a war with North Korea in the unlikely event that were to occur. Earlier this week, North Korea exploded what it said was a nuclear device. "We currently have just over 200,000 of our 2.4 million service members engaged in operations in the Gulf," Pace said, "which means just under 2 million are available to handle whatever other problem might come our way. That should not be lost on anybody. ... We have enormous capacity remaining, especially in our air and naval forces, to handle any potential problem."

But the general noted that dealing with North Korea while the US was still fighting in Iraq would not "be as clean as we would like." Various intelligence-collection systems are now devoted to Iraq. "So you wouldn't have the precision in combat going to a second theater of war.... You will end up dropping more bombs, potentially, to get the job done and it will be more brute force in a second . But you can certainly get the job done anywhere on the planet with the forces we have available to us right now."

The threat of nuclear proliferation is a key worry, Pace said. "The real concern right now with North Korea is whether or not they would end up providing any weapons they may or may not have to terrorists." Pace offered a spirited defense to charges in Bob Woodward's new book, "State of Denial," that top generals had not been blunt enough in presenting their concerns about the war in Iraq to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "You are asking a judge if he runs a fair court when you ask me if I have been blunt enough," Pace said. "My answer is: Yes, I have been very upfront, very straightforward. I have multiple opportunities every day. I am with the secretary of Defense a minimum of 30 minutes a day, more likely three to four hours a day, with the president several times a week."

"I have ample opportunity provided to me by the secretary of Defense and the president to express my views. And, in fact, they have listened to my views and, in fact, have asked me - and invite me - to speak about things that are not just purely military if they in any way impact on the military."

[maine_raptor]

8. Oh Man......Read between the lines on this one!!!!!!!

Because as the writer put it: "Various intelligence-collection systems are now devoted to Iraq", pace then answers:


"So you wouldn't have the precision in combat going to a second theater of war.... You will end up dropping more bombs, potentially, to get the job done and it will be more brute force in a second . But you can certainly get the job done anywhere on the planet with the forces we have available to us right now."


"Brute Force" = nukes.

The answer to a war on the Korean Peninsula is nukes.

What he is saying is that is the only thing left in the bag, folks.

He's actually commenting, in a round about way, on just how badly our conventional forces are used up.

[sarge43]

7. That's easy

Blame Clinton

[C_U_L8R]

9. Bush wasn't paying attention

Is there anything that this clown of a president has not screwed up??

[noahmijo]

10. "Before I came into office I couldn't find North Korea on a globe"

C'mon Onion pick up on this!

[bigtree]

11. my response: Bush On Jong

From 2001, when he first came to office, to the end of 2006, Bush sat on his hands as North Korea built up its nuclear arsenal. Bush expected everyone else in the world except his administration to talk to North Korea because he wasn't interested. He invaded and occupied Afghanistan, invaded and occupied Iraq, fostered and facilitated Israel's invasion of Lebanon, yet, he won't directly confront the one nation which has actually directly threatened the U.S. and the world, and appears to be in actual possession of the nuclear means to carry out the threat; unlike the other hapless victims of his Mideast coups . . .

more: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2883608&mesg_id=2883608

[IndianaGreen]

12. Amount of plutonium produced by NK during Clinton years = 0

Amount of plutonium produced by NK during the Bush years = enough to assemble 6-10 atomic bombs.