Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994                   TAG: 9406060024
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

N. KOREAN INTRANSIGENCE DRAWS ANOTHER WARNING

But even with growing bipartisan support for military action - including support for contingency plans for a pre-emptive strike if necessary - the president said he wanted to talk peace instead of war.

In Europe for D-Day anniversary ceremonies, Clinton sought in a round of television interviews to keep the rhetoric cool while at the same time underscoring U.S. resolve in dealing with North Korea.

"We have not sought a confrontation with them," he said during an interview on CNN. "The door is still open for them to become part of the world's community and that's what we want."

North Korean officials have said they would consider economic sanctions to be "a declaration of war."

Asked by ABC whether he believed North Korea was bluffing about invading South Korea if pressured by sanctions, Clinton said: "I don't think that they would risk the certain terrible defeat and destruction that would occur if they did that. But I don't want any war talk. I want this to be about peace talk. What happens in North Korea and to North Korea is a function of what North Korea does."

Clinton said he expected the United Nations to approve sanctions against North Korea, but that the United States is prepared to join with other willing nations to put economic pressure on North Korea if the U.N. does not act.

Defense Secretary William Perry said he did not believe a military showdown was imminent over the North's refusal to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities. But he said the United States would, if necessary, strengthen the 38,000 U.S. troops already in South Korea, and use them if fighting broke out.

Perry said a pre-emptive military strike against Pyongyang's nuclear installations "is an option which is open," a reversal of a position he publicly took two months ago. But he added that he would not presently recommend such an action.

Nonetheless, he said the United States would not hesitate to defend South Korea if their hardline northern neighbors attack.

"We will defend South Korea," Perry said. "We have a commitment to defend South Korea."

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he would back the Clinton administration if it began planning a pre-emptive military strike. He also said he would support a quick U.S. military buildup in East Asia "so they understand this is serious business."

Dole criticized the White House for "waffling and backing away" during months of diplomatic maneuvering with North Korea. On the same program, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., went even further.

"This administration has performed so far in the highest traditions of Neville Chamberlain," said McCain, referring to the pre-World War II British prime minister blamed by many for not standing up to Germany's Adolf Hitler.

Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., also on "Face the Nation," stopped short of calling for a pre-emptive strike on North Korean nuclear facilities if sanctions don't work "but clearly we've got to prepare for war."

"The North Koreans have threatened war if we try to impose sanctions and so we've got to begin to prepare and we've got to say to the North Koreans that, `If that's the game that you want to play, regrettably, we're prepared to play it,' " said Kerrey.

North Korea is suspected of making nuclear weapons. It has refused to let international inspectors examine its stocks of plutonium, as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that Pyongyang signed five years ago. Plutonium is an ingredient of nuclear arms.

The North says its nuclear program is peaceful and has refused to back down against burgeoning international pressure.

On Sunday, North Korea said it would abandon the nonproliferation pact unless the United States agrees to direct talks, and continued to show no taste for full nuclear inspections.

North Korea does "not have the intention to meet an unjustifiable demand . . . and cannot tolerate our sovereignty encroached upon," said the North Korean commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency and monitored in Tokyo.

Should Pyongyang quit the nonproliferation treaty, inspectors would not be able to enter North Korea, and the communist regime would have no legal reason to obey its pledge to shun nuclear weapons.