A t the moment, the United States and North Korea appear on a collision course with neither side willing to reduce speed due to domestic considerations. As the North raises the stakes in its nuclear gamble on a daily basis, the response and warnings from the US also gets stronger.

Pyongayng removed seals from a nuclear reprocessing laboratory, which will allow them to extract weapons grade plutonium from spent fuel rods at any time. While in the US, which had to date been stressing diplomatic measures to deal with the situation, talk turned to military action with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld making it clear that the US was capable of fighting two wars simultaneously.

These developments were expected when North Korea announced the scrapping of the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework right before our presidential election; the only unexpected thing was the election of Roh Moo-hyun. As a result not only are the US and the North awaiting his response to the unfolding events, but also so are the South Korean people. His reaction is probably more important than that of President Kim Dae-jung and his administration, which only has two months remaining.

Roh is reportedly busy receiving briefings from the government and meeting foreign ambassadors, however, the most immediate thing for him to do would be to announce his clear intention not to go along with the North's nuclear gamble and to solve the problem through international cooperation. Only then can we stop North Korea's desire for provocation during the transitional period of government. In this respect it is also urgent for Roh to prioritize US-Korea relations.

Also we would like to ask Roh to act cautiously and avoid excessive reliance on campaign pledges and blunt statements. He is no longer a presidential candidate, he is the president-elect. December 25, 2002