WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion. Rice said that President Bush has told the North Koreans that "there is no intention to invade or attack them. So they have that guarantee. ... I don't know what more they want."
Rice told CNN Tuesday that Bush "never takes any of his options off the table. But is the United States, somehow, in a provocative way, trying to invade North Korea? It's just not the case."
But she also said that the decision by Pyongyang to go ahead with its nuclear program means it likely will see "international condemnation and international sanctions unlike anything that they have faced before."
Asked whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may have felt that he needed to stage an apparent nuclear test this week to prevent an invasion similar to the U.S.-led attack on Saddam Hussein, Rice said Iraq "was a very special situation."
"Iraq was a desire to finally deal with a threat that had been there for too long," she said.
North Korea's No. 2 leader threatened further nuclear tests if the United States continues its "hostile attitude."
In an interview Wednesday with Japan's Kyodo News agency, Kim Yong Nam, second to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, threatened further nuclear tests if the United States continues its "hostile attitude."
"The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to U.S. policy toward our country," Kim was quoted as telling Kyodo when asked whether Pyongyang will conduct any more nuclear tests.
Kim also suggested that Pyongyang was ready to return to stalled six- party talks if sanctions against the reclusive regime are lifted, Kyodo reported.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Wednesday there are plenty of avenues for talks to resolve the issue.
"We have plenty of ways of talking with the North Koreans. The problem is, they don't like what we say and we certainly don't like what they do," he said on NBC's "Today" show.
McCain called the latest statements from Pyongyang "one in an unending series of threats and bullying and attempts to get aid and assistance from the West."
Rice rejected direct talks with North Korea, saying that if Kim "wants a bilateral deal, it's because he doesn't want to face the pressure of other states that have leverage," referring to China, South Korea and the other members of stalled six-nation nuclear negotiations.
"What Kim Jong Il should understand is that if he verifiably gives up his nuclear weapons program, there is a better path," Rice said. "There's a better path for his people, who are oppressed and downtrodden, and hungry for that matter."
Her comments came as John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States would not be intimidated by a reported threat from Pyongyang that it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts to resolve the standoff.
"This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and intimidation," Bolton said. "It's worked for them before. It won't work for them now."
The White House said, meanwhile, there is a "remote possibility" that the world never will be able to fully determine whether North Korea succeeded in conducting a nuclear test Monday. While acknowledging that the action was provocative, White House press secretary Tony Snow suggested that it's possible that the test was something less than it appeared.
"You could have something that is very old and off-the-shelf here, as well, in which case they've dusted off something that is old and dormant," he said. The comment appeared to indicate that the White House was attempting to play down the significance of the test, but Snow said later that he was merely posing a hypothetical question.
While opposition Democrats claimed the test was evidence of a failed U.S. policy, Snow argued that the test has left the nations involved in the six-party negotiations with the communist regime more unified and determined to persuade Pyongyang to accept incentives to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. He also denied that the demands of the war in Iraq hampered the Bush administration's ability to dissuade North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
"The Chinese, the South Koreans, the Japanese—they all have more direct leverage over the North Koreans than we do," Snow said. "The people who have the greatest ability to influence behavior are now fully invested in equal partners in a process to deal with the government of North Korea."
In response to North Korea's purported nuclear test, the United States is pressing at the United Nations for stringent sanctions on Pyongyang, including a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the country, and freezing assets connected with its weapons programs.
