1st Strike Possible: Ex-U.S. Official

North Korea has decided to rejoin the six-party talks, but a series of warnings of a possible U.S. attack on the North’s nuclear facilities are coming out of Washington.

On November 4 at a symposium sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun and held in Tokyo called “North Korea’s nuclear test and security of East Asia,” former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry warned that the U.S. could launch a military strike on the North’s nuclear facilities.

Perry said, “Once a graphite-moderated reactor, which North Korea is said to be building, is up and running, North Korea’s capability to produce nuclear arms will get boosted,” and predicted that if China and South Korea don’t put pressure on the North, the U.S. will have to take a meaningful measure before the reactor is in operation.

However, U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice noted in a TV interview on November 3, “The military always plans,” and dismissed the idea of military attack, saying, “As President George W. Bush made it clear, U.S. has no intention of invading North Korea.”

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