Bush Plays Down Rift With Allies Over U.S. Stance on North Korea

North Korea’s decision to re-start its nuclear program has much of Asia, the US, and others on edge. How to deal with the communist country’s ambitions is creating a degree of tension between the US and its allies. The US has been pursuing a diplomacy-centered route in handling the issue, a policy that has invited greater scrutiny of its attitude toward another “Axis of Evil” member, Iraq. President Bush argues that North Korea represents a different kind of threat than Iraq, and that, as one US senior official said, “We have basically exhausted diplomacy and containment in Iraq. We haven't in Korea.” Not all agree, though, as less-hawkish members of the UN Security Council are still pressing for diplomatic efforts on both fronts. Although Iraq and North Korea are literally a world apart, how one situation is resolved will apparently have direct effects on how the other is approached. - YaleGlobal