US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday (local time) that the US has no intention of initiating war with North Korea. As Powell's remarks followed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's explanation that President George W. Bush's recent address did not imply military measures against the North, the Bush Administration is interpreted to have clearly excluded the option of armed conflict with Pyongyang.

At a Senate Budget Committee meeting, Secretary Powell said of the three countries that Bush called an "axis of evil," North Korea and Iran fell into a somewhat different category from Iraq, emphasizing that Bush would repeat, during his Seoul visit next week, that Washington is "ready for dialogue, anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with no preconditions."

Regarding the president's Seoul visit, Powell continued that Bush would express "his hope that one day a way will be found for these two nations to once again be one people" and show "his support for the policies of the South that are encouraging the North to come out of its isolation."

However, the Secretary made clear that Washington "will not shrink from pointing out the nature of the North Korean regime," which "does things that do not benefit its own people," by developing weapons and selling them to "other nations that are not interested in helping their own people."

(From Washington DC, Ju Yong-jun, midway@chosun.com )