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Originally Posted by boneprone
Before the democrats take over control of the white house again.
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You're kidding me right? Don't you know your history?
WASHINGTON - The U.S. was on the brink of war with North Korea in 1994 before Pyongyang agreed to halt its nuclear weapons program, sources said yesterday.
"It went down to the wire," said a diplomatic source in the Clinton administration. "The American people will never know how close we were to war."
The revelation came a day after the stunning announcement that Pyongyang admitted to U.S. officials last month that it continued its nuclear weapons program despite the agreement.
The program probably has produced one or two enriched-uranium bombs, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Sources said the Bush administration would adopt a low-key approach to the situation.
The North Koreans were working on a plutonium bomb ? which is smaller and more powerful than an enriched uranium device, but harder to make ? in 1994, when then-President Bill Clinton sent a battery of Patriot missiles to South Korea to shoot down missiles fired from the North, at least two Stealth bombers and additional troops.
A U.S. submarine also was also sent on "a close-in mission" off North Korea.
"Had they not accepted, we had 50,000 troops on the [demilitarized zone]. We were hell-bent about stopping them," the ex-State Department source said.
Urged to suspend work
Clinton also dispatched Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci to Pyongyang to urge the Communist regime in 1994 and again in 1995 to accept two light-water reactors ? which do not produce weapons-grade nuclear material ? from South Korea in exchange for an agreement to suspend its nuclear weapons program.
"He kept us out of a ground war," the source said of Gallucci's effort.
The North Koreans said at the time their nuclear research was meant for energy production ? not weapons. Gallucci argued that if their claims were true, there was no reason not to accept the light-water reactors.
"If we hadn't taken those steps, they were on a glide path to producing nuclear weapons," another source close to Clinton said.
The North Koreans now admit they ultimately broke the deal, but they knew in 1994 the U.S. was serious about taking military action to curb the threat to South Korea, Japan and U.S. troops and interests in the region.
Former President Jimmy Carter also traveled to North Korea in 1994, drawing criticism from some in the Clinton White House, who felt he was meddling.
Carter later briefed Clinton, telling him the North Koreans had vowed to suspend production of weapons-grade plutonium.