Hong Won Tak, senior secretary for national security affairs, maintained the incident would not change the country's "sunshine" policy of seeking to engage North Korea or to cultivate business relations with it.

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And on a separate foreign policy issue, the President referred to North Korea in his interview this weekend.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

If anyone thinks Mr Bush is not responsible for foreign policy, whether the general approach to China or North Korea, the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq or the new American attitude toward Europe, they are wrong, argue Messrs Daalder and Lindsay.

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There will be many opportunities to explore this and other diplomatic options in policy towards North Korea.

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And there are a lot of foreign policy issues all around the world from Syria to Iran, North Korea, et cetera.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

That creates a particularly appeasement-prone environment, as no newly elected leader wishes to spend political capital on a foreign policy crisis created by North Korea when many other pressing domestic issues beckon.

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And we talked about the security situation in the region and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and agreed to continue working closely together in implementing our North Korea policy.

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On the foreign policy side, on North Korea, has North Korea, in fact, offered to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors back into the country?

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

Diplomacy should be the "end game" for the administration's policy regarding North Korea, said Richardson, one of the few U.S. politicians to have visited the country.

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