From Condi's State Department briefing of October 16th, at:
www.state.gov
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, there is a strain of criticism against the Administration out there which I'd like you to address and tell me why, if it's wrong, why it might be wrong. This strain of criticism points to the President's statements back in 2003 saying that a North Korea that is a nuclear power is unacceptable a (...), it is making the Administration less effective in dealing with North Korea and with Iran, the other two members of the "axis of evil".
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, I think the President clearly had the diagnosis right about states that were pursuing outside of international norms troublesome policies. Iraq is in a category by itself. Let's remember we were in a suspended state of war with Iraq after 1991.
Looking around, I see that she made a similar statement back in May. This is a new kind of reasoning that I haven't seen or noticed before. While this might rank low on the Rice Scale of Prevarification, it is a talking point that I haven't seen before. See - the administration didn't START a war - it is merely FINISHING a war. It might be nice if they'd get around to actually doing that (finishing).
I think that our lead diplomat's statements may unwittingly alarm the leader of the DPRK. He's already very paranoid and the country makes routine statements about needing a nuclear bomb to protect themselves from the US. While I personally don't see us attacking the DPRK anytime soon and Ms. Rice has said "We have no desire to ratchet up conflict" this is the kind of thing that could give Kim pause. Could we restart the war in Korea? After all - there is no peace settlement on the Korean peninsula but an armistice instead. The same person that reasons the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003 is only a continuance of the 1991 war could also argue that a fresh attack of North Korea is a continuance of the hostilities from the 1950s. While I don't give much credence at this point to that happening, who'd have thought we'd attack Iraq in 2000?