Bush, Hu Discuss North Korea

U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao in a telephone conversation yesterday discussed the need to push North Korea to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 21).

“I talked to Hu Jintao this morning about the six-party talks and the need for us to continue to work together to send a clear message to the North Korean leader that there is a better choice for him than to continue to develop a nuclear weapon,” Bush said.

“We talked about how we’ll continue to collaborate and work together,” he said.

Bush indicated that Washington would not ease its pursuit of North Korean counterfeiting of U.S. currency in order to boost the chances for success in curbing Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.

“Counterfeiting U.S. dollars is an issue that every president ought to be concerned about,” he said.  “When you catch people counterfeiting your money, you need to do something about it” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 21).

The United States might place a mobile X-band radar in Asia to monitor North Korea, which last month test-fired seven missiles, United Press International reported yesterday.

Sites being considered by the Defense Department include South Korea, Guam, and the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Okinawa, according to Kyodo News.  Kyushu and South Korea are closest to North Korea and thus the leading choices for the radar installation, a U.S. official said (United Press International, Aug. 21).

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