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Nation & World News Bush proposes security accord to North Korea i ne agreement promises North Korea security from U.S. attack if it halts its nuclear weapons program By G. Robert Hillman The Dallas Morning News (KRT) BANGKOK, Thailand — President Bush on Sunday offered the prospect of a written agreement with North Korea that would satisfy its security concerns in return for scuttling its nu clear weapons program. But the president made clear that any such accord must also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Ko rea, the other nations involved in dis cussions with North Korea. "We will not have a treaty.... Ihat's off the table, * Bush told reporters dur ing a brief question-and-answer ses sion with Thailand's prime minister, 'lhaksin Shinawatra. "Perhaps there are other ways we can look at to say exactly what I said publicly on paper, with our partners' consent." What Bush has said repeatedly — and reiterated again Sunday — is that the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea and that the communist nation must abandon its nuclear ambitions. Later Sunday, Bush, who is in Bangkok for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, met privately with Chinese President Mu Jintao to discuss North Korea, among other issues, and to thank him for hosting the last round of talks in Beijing. "We have a mutual goal, and that is the (Korean) Peninsula be free of nu clear weapons," Bush said. 1 lu said he was willing to push for more discussions involving the six na tions, which are now stalled, in part because North Korea has objected to Japan's continued involvement. For Bush, the talk about North Ko rea overshadowed his move to push the APEC agenda more toward terror ism issues than economic ones. At nearly every stop so far on his weeklong trip through the Pacific, in his public speeches and in his private meetings, Bush has sought more in ternational help in rebuilding war torn Iraq and, more generally, in the ongoing war against terrorism. "One terrorist camp in the moun tains of Central Asia can bring horror to innocent people living far away, whether they're in Bali, in Riyadh or in New York City," Bush told troops at the Royal Thai Army Headquarters. "One murderous dictator pursuing weapons of mass destruction and cul tivating ties to terror could threaten the lives of millions." The president made no specific mention, though, of North Korea, which he has lumped into an "axis of evil,*' along with Iraq and Iran. Nor did he name the North Korean leader, Kim Jong II, who has pushed ahead with a nuclear weapons program de spite an agreement with the United States to abandon it. In his brief meetings with re porters, Bush offered no timetable for resuming the six-party talks or of formalizing his ideas for a written agreement — something short of a formal treaty that would have to be ratified by the Senate. Afterward, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the administration was "anxious to move forward" within the six-party framework to "find ways to provide North Korea the kind of security assurances they're looking for in return for them aban doning their program." "We are not interested, however, in a treaty or in a non-aggression pact" Powell said from Bangkok on Fox News Sunday. "But there are other models of security assurances and agreements that have been entered into over the years that should give us some basis to work from and to ex plore ideas." Whatever the model, Bush re-em phasized that he was not returning to the bilateral "agreed framework" that the Clinton administration had ne gotiated with North Korea because the "North Koreans cheated," mean ing they had pushed ahead with a nu clear weapons program despite an agreement with the United States to abandon it. "So, we're trying another ap proach," Bush said. "I'm hopeful this will work. ... We're making good progress." Administration officials said they hoped, too, that China would con vene a new round of six-party talks, perhaps by the end of the year. One of the officials, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, emphasized that any moves by the United States to reach an agreement with North Kore ans would have to be "conditioned on verifiable progress on their part." "The question is," the official asked, "are there things that we can see happening on the ground, as op posed to just hollow assurances that we don't like nuclear weapons any more because we woke up today in a good mood?'" Regarding another issue on the U.S.-China agenda, the official said Hu had agreed in his meeting with Bush to assemble a panel of experts to determine how China could "move more rapidly toward a genuine float ing exchange rate." Bush has been pressing China, as well as lapan, not to keep their cur rencies undervalued compared to the U.S. dollar, a policy that hurts the U.S. economy by making foreign goods less expensive than American ones. Instead, Bush, who is heading into a re-election campaign in which De mocrats are making jobs a central is sue, wants the countries to move to ward a strong dollar policy where currency exchange rates move with the market. When Bush reiterated his stance, the official said, Hu offered an "inter esting" response. "He said that is, indeed, China's goal, too," the official said. "But Chi na is cautious about moving too quickly toward that goal and feels that rapid changes ... could lead to unsta ble conditions not only in China, but in Asia more generally." (cj 2003, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Two U.S. soldiers killed by guerilla fighters in Iraq I he two deaths in Kirkuk bring the total number of American soldiers slain in action to 103 since May 1 By Jeff Wilkinson Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two more U.S. soldiers have been killed and another wounded in continuing violence in Iraq, the military announced Sunday. The deaths occurred when a pa trol from the 4th Infantry Division was ambushed southwest of Kirkuk Saturday night. The attackers fired small arms and rocket propelled grenades at the Americans at about 8:40 p.m. Kirkuk is about 160 miles north of Baghdad. The Task Force Ironhorse patrol returned fire, but no further contact was made with the guerilla fighters, the military said. The names of the dead were withheld pending notifi cation of families. The deaths brought to 103 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in ac tion since May 1. On Sunday guerrillas also attacked a stalled convoy west of Baghdad, ex ploding an ammunition truck, but in junng no one. In the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, U S. troops overnight withdrew a dozen tanks and a large body of troops from an area near two important Shiite mosques where three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi police officers were killed Thursday when they attempted to disarm bodyguards of a radical cler ic who were violating curfew. The attack on the stalled convoy oc curred about 35 miles west of Bagh dad. While no one was injured, the at tack detonated an ammunition truck, setting off a spectacular blast. The incidents were two of 15 at tacks by guerilla fighters in a 24-hour period throughout Iraq. A senior U.S. official called the total "pretty low." An average of 22 attacks a day have occurred on coalition forces in recent weeks. A senior military official said that the coalition still is determined to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks in Karbala, which occurred just before midnight on Thursday. Coalition officials blamed the in cident, in which an American lieu tenant colonel was killed, on body guards of cleric Mahmoud al-Hassani, one of Karbala's lesser known ayatollahs. But a coalition official said the inci dent is still being investigated that no decision has been made on whether to arrest Hassani. A key Shiite cleric said Saturday that Hassani and his re maining gunmen had fled the city. Hassani was an associate of the fa ther of Muqtada al Sadr, a 30-year-old cleric who also is suspected in a string of suicide bombings and attacks on U.S. soldiers in the capital city. (c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Israeli soldiers killed in ambush during army patrol Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded a fourth in a West Bank attack on Sunday By Joel Greenberg Chicago Tribune (KRT) JERUSALEM — Palestinian gun men ambushed an Israeli army patrol near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Sunday, killing three soldiers and wounding a fourth, the army said. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant offshoot of the mainstream Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it a "response to Zionist massacres against our people" and retaliation for Israeli raids in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah in which 14 Palestinians have been killed in recent days. Hiding behind a wall after dark, the gunmen fired from dose range at a foot patrol in the Palestinian village of Ein Yabrud north of Ramallah, a mili tary official said. The three attackers fled in a car, taking the guns of the dead soldiers. Ein Yabmd is near the Jewish settle ment of Offa and overlooks a highway used by settlers to reach their commu nities. The village is patrolled regularly by the military in an effort to prevent attacks on the settlers. There have been several deadly shootings of settlers traveling in the area in the past three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence. After Sunday's ambush, troops searching for the attackers damped a curfew on Ein Yabmd and army bull dozers arrived on the scene, Israel Television reported. The army has bulldozed Palestinian farmland and razed buildings near the sites of fatal shootings after previous attacks. In the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Israeli troops pulled out of the Brazil refugee camp in Rafah, along the border with Egypt, after a sweep for arms-smug gling tunnels, but they remained near by, witnesses said. In a clash in the camp Saturday, two Hamas gunmen and a bystander were killed, bringing to 14 the total number of Palestinians killed in the 10-day-old Israeli operation in Rafah, which has encountered armed resistance. The army says that it has uncovered and destroyed three smuggling tunnels. The army said that in Saturday's in cident, troops fired at militants plant ing a bomb and at another group of people who tried to recover the explo sive. Palestinians said that Widad Ajrami, 30, a mother of four, was killed and her husband and brother in-law were wounded when their car was raked with gunfire as they tried to ferry wounded people to a hospital. The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinian refugees said that more than 100 dwellings have been de stroyed in the Israeli operation, leav ing more than 1,200 people homeless. In apparent retaliation for the Is raeli operation, militants in the Gaza Strip fired eight crude Qassam rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot and neighboring Kibbutz Nir-Am on Sunday, but there were no casualties or damage, the army said. Palestinian security officials said they had detained another suspect in last week's bombing of an American diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip that killed three security guards. At least eight people have been held on suspicion of involvement in the at tack, the first lethal assault on a U.S. target in the Palestinian areas. An FBI team investigating the bomb ing is to meet Monday for a second time with Palestinian security officials. In another development, the Israeli army called up several hundred re servists to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to meet what it called heightened threats of Palestinian sui cide attacks. In the West Bank town of Jenin, meanwhile, troops backed by tanks and armored jeeps raided offices of the militant group Islamic Jihad, con fiscating computers and documents, witnesses said. Two militants were ar rested, witnesses and the army said. The militants were planning suicide attacks in Israel, the army said. (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Advertise. * hi Oregon Daily Emerald/ ADVERTISING CALL 346.3712 Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. BOX3159, Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Friday during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. 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