Bush urged to toughen N. Korea stance

A satellite image of North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons facility at Yongbyon

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VIDEO CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae looks at what is known about North Korea's nuclear arms program and the U.S. response PLAY VIDEO RELATED • U.S. warns North Korea to disarm  • Pyongyang urged to stick to anti-nuke pacts  • Korean War resentment still lingers  • Interactive: Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What  • Special Report: The two Koreas  • TIME.com How do you solve a problem like Korea?  1994 agreement North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program and allow inspections to verify that it did not have the material such weapons would require. The country has yet to allow the inspections. N. Korea nuclear facts North Korea launched a medium-range "test" missile over Japan in 1998. The 1994 Agreed Framework was signed by North Korea with the Clinton administration. In return, an international consortium is building new nuclear reactors in North Korea.

WASHINGTON -- Five United States Congressmen have written to President Bush urging him to punish North Korea for continuing with its nuclear weapons program and push for a change of government in the isolated Stalinist state.

In a letter to the administration Wednesday, Republican Senators Jesse Helms, Bob Smith and John Kyl, Republican Representative Chris Cox and Democrat Representative Ed Markey called on the president to terminate a 1994 agreement for the U.S. to provide North Korea with fuel oil.

The deal called for the North to shut down rectors capable of producing weapons-grade material in return for the United States providing 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil a year while two advanced light water reactors were being built.

In their letter the five lawmakers said the fuel shipments should be "permanently terminated," as part of efforts to bring down what they called a "dangerous regime" and a "threat to global peace."

The White House has not yet said whether it plans to abandon the American side of the 1994 agreement.

However, members of the Bush administration have said they regard the deal as nullified by the North's admission to a visiting U.S. delegation earlier this month that it had continued with efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

'No viable alternative'

In response the five lawmakers called on the president to impose tough new economic and diplomatic sanctions on North Korea and consider ousting the country's communist leadership.

"The United States should work aggressively with its allies to prepare for a future beyond the current Stalinist regime in Pyongyang," their letter said.

It went on: "We see no viable alternative given the proven failure of subsidizing North Korea and of relying upon that country's promises, as well as the regime's deplorable treatment of the North Korean people."

However, unlike in the case of Iraq, the letter did not call for military action against North Korea.

Earlier this year President Bush used his State of the Union address to label North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, part of what he called an "axis of evil" that presented the greatest threat to world peace.

The letter from the five congressmen came as talks between Japan -- a key American ally in East Asia -- and North Korea ended without signs of significant progress.

The two days of meetings in Malaysia had been intended to discuss establishing formal diplomatic ties.

However, the talks became overshadowed by concerns over the North's nuclear program and the fate of five Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s.

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