U.S. representative labels
North Korea 'terrorist state'
Secretary of State Colin Powell assures that Bush seeks
a peaceful solution to nuclear weapons disagreement
BY GEORGE GEDDA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — Secretary of State Col
in Powell pressed North Korea on
Sunday to return to nuclear disar
mament talks even as he branded
the communist country a “terrorist
state” that has “no respect for hu
man rights.”
Powell’s strong comments came
after North Korea accused the
United States of “evermore hostile
acts,” including U.S. participation
in a multinational naval exercise
set to begin Monday off the Japan
ese coast.
The maneuvers are part of an ef
fort to curb the smuggling of mis
siles and nuclear technology on the
high seas.
North Korea dominated Powell’s
discussions in Japan with Prime
Minister Junichiro and other offi
cials. Later, Powell flew to China
where he planned talks on Monday
with President Hu Jintao on North
Korea, Taiwan and other issues.
Powell’s final stop during his trip
to East Asia will be South Korea.
At a news conference, Powell
gave assurances that President Bush
seeks a peaceful solution to the
long-running impasse over North
Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.
The United States is seeking the
permanent dismantling of these
programs. Three meetings involv
ing the United States, the two Ko
reas, China, Japan and Russia have
been held in China, with little evi
dence of progress.
Blaming what it said were hostile
U.S. policies, North Korea boycotted
a meeting that was to have been
held in September. Powell said it
was urgent to resume the talks.
Responding to North Korea’s
wariness about the naval exercises,
Powell said, “The only thing North
Korea should be concerned about is
whether or not they’re going to be
caught in the act of participating in
... illicit traffic. This is not hostile to
any nation that is acting in an ap
propriate manner. ”
In the past, North Korea has ex
ported missiles to the Middle East.
The United States, Japan and sev
en other countries will participate in
the naval exercise; some 14 more
nations will serve as observers.
The U.S. undersecretary for arms
control, John Bolton, will monitor
the exercises on Tliesday. Long an
outspoken critic of North Korea, he
was once derided by officials there
as “human scum.”
North Korea says U.S. hostile in
tent also was reflected in a human
rights law that was signed by Presi
dent Bush last week.
The law urges North Korea to
allow freedom of speech and reli
gion and calls for the appointment
by the president of a human rights
monitor for North Korea. In the ab
sence of a reduction in rights abus
es, the law would forbid U.S. assis
tance to North Korea except for
humanitarian purposes.
Interviewed by Japanese journal
ists, Powell said the desperation of
North Koreans is apparent by the
number of them who jump over
fences and penetrate embassy com
pounds “to get away from this
regime that made life so difficult for
them — not only economically dif
ficult but by having no respect for
human rights.”
He also highlighted North Korea’s
role in kidnaping Japanese citizens
and smuggling them into North Ko
rea. “A state did this, not terrorists,
but a state. A terrorist state did this,”
Powell said.
Powell’s comments on North Ko
rea were unusually harsh. The ad
ministration normally has refrained
from such rhetoric as it has pursued
renewed North Korean participation
in the six-party talks.
Democratic presidential candi
date John Kerry has said direct U.S.
North Korea talks are the best way
to reach a settlement. Powell said
North Korea itself is “desperate” for
that kind of negotiation.
“I think anybody who would ap
proach the problem that way, after
we have gotten the six-party frame
work moving forward, will be disap
pointed, whether it’s Mr. Kerry or
anybody else,” Powell said.
Further quakes
wreak havoc on
Northern Japan
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake on Saturday was followed
on Monday by a 5.6 aftershock 160 miles from Tokyo
BYERICTALMADGE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OJIYA, Japan — Yoshikazu Ogawa
stood outside the pile of rubble that
was once his home, poking around the
plaster and wood that had suddenly
come crashing down on his two mini
vans when a series of earthquakes hit
northern Japan, killing at least 23 peo
ple and injuring some 2,000.
“We’ve got nothing,” he said Sun
day, one day after a magnitude 6.8
quake flattened his home and neigh
borhood in Ojiya, a town of 40,000
about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo.
“Our house is destroyed. We have no
electricity, no toilet, no telephone. ”
Like some 64,000 other people,
Ogawa said he and his family
planned to spend the night in one of
hundreds of makeshift evacuation
centers — school gymnasiums, park
ing lots, even street corners — set up
in the region as officials struggle to
restore its battered lifelines.
Early Monday, a 5.6-magnitude af
tershock hit the region, jolting sur
vivors huddled in emergency shel
ters. It hit near Ojiya, the epicenter of
Saturday’s temblor. No damage or in
juries were immediately reported.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
pledged that the government would
set aside funding for reconstruction.
But officials estimated it would take
weeks to rebuild roads, bridges and
homes and restore essential services.
The quake hit just after sunset Sat
urday in Niigata state on the north
western coast of Japan’s main island.
Several strong quakes followed
through the night as a near-total
blackout enveloped about 280,000
households and aftershocks contin
ued jolting the area Sunday.
The Japanese government said 23
people were killed and 1,232 were in
jured. Public broadcaster NHK report
ed that some 2,000 people were in
jured.
The injured overwhelmed local
hospitals, where patients were being
treated in the hallways. Saturday's
quake also flattened dozens of
homes, tore through the pavement of
local roads and highways and caused
landslides that left whole villages cut
off from the outside world.
TWo trains derailed, but no injuries
were reported. One was a bullet train,
the first to jump its tracks since Japan
began running such trains in 1964.
Military helicopters airlifted strand
ed villagers from a riverside hamlet,
Shiotani, that was cut off when the
bridge connecting it to Ojiya was top
pled. Several other villages were iso
lated, including Yamagoshi, a moun
tain village of 600, where a landslide
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