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. Inc., at
the University of Oregon, Eugene,
Oregon.The Emerald operates inde
pendently of the University with of
fices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial
Union. The Emerald is private prop
erty. The unlawful removal or use of
papers is prosecutable by law.
NEWSROOM — (541)346-5511
Editor in chief: Brad Schmidt
Managing editor: Jan Tobias Montry
Freelance editor: Aimee Rudin
News editors: Jennifer Marie Bear, Ayisha Yahya Senior news
reporters: A. Sho Ikeda, Ali Shaughnessy News reporters: Caron
Alarab, Chelsea Duncan, Jared Paben, Chuck Slothower
Pulse editor: Aaron Shakra Senior Pulse reporter: Ryan Nyburg
Pulse reporter: Natasha Chilingerian Pulse columnists: Helen
Schumacher, Carl Sundberg
Sports editor: Hank Hager Senior sports reporter: Mindi Rice
Sports reporters: Jon Roetman, Jesse Thomas
Editorial editor: Travis Willse Columnists: Joseph Bechard, Jes
sica Cole-Hodgkinson, Peter Hockaday, David Jagernauth
Illustrators: Steve Baggs, Eric Layton
Design editor: Adelle Lennox Senior designer: Sean Hanson
Designers: Kimberly Premore, Kari Pinkerton
Photo editor: Adam Amato Senior photographer: Danielle Hick
ey Photographer: Lauren Wimer Part-time photographers: Tim
Bobosky, Mark McCambridge
Copy chiefs: Kim Chapman, Jennifer Sudick Copy editors: Gabri
elle Barber, Rebekah Hearn, Ben Pepper, Brandi Smith, MacKen
sey Thompson
Online editor: Erik Bishoff Webmaster: Eric Layton
BUSINESS — 346-5512 General manager: Judy Riedl
Business supervisor: Kathy Carbone Receptionist: Sarah Go
racke Distribution: Mike Chen, John Long, Matt O’Brien,
Michael Sarnoff-Wood, Ben Swagerty
ADVERTISING — DISPLAY 346-3712 CLASSIFIED 346-4343
Director: Melissa Gust Sales manager: Michelle Chan
Special publications and classified manager: Hilary Mosher
Sales representatives: Tim Bott, Army Feth, Patrick Gilligan, Me
gan Hamlin, Kim Humphries, Alex Hurliman, Tyler Mack, Shannon
Rogers, Dan Sawaya, Katherine Vague Assistants: Liz Carson,
Katy Cooney, Thomas Redditt, Keri Spangler, Kate Workman
PRODUCTION — 346-4381 Manager: Michele Ross
Production coordinator: Tara Sloan Designers: Jen Cramlett,
Kristen Dicharry, Matt Graff, Andy Holland, Marissa Jones, Jonah
Schrogin