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John Kerry: Bush's North Korea Policy a 'Shocking Failure'
Democrats seized on North Korea's brazen act to criticize President Bush's record in confronting the communist regime, contending the administration's focus on Iraq ignored legitimate threats.
Democratic Sen. John Kerry, the president's rival in 2004 and a potential 2008 candidate, assailed Bush's policy as a "shocking failure," and said, "While we've been bogged down in Iraq where there were no weapons of mass destruction, a madman has apparently tested the ultimate weapon of mass destruction."
One month before midterm elections, North Korea's reported nuclear test provided Republicans an opportunity to shift the focus from their embarrassing - and politically explosive - congressional page scandal to national security, an issue the GOP considers its strength.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate's second-ranking Republican, accused Democrats of playing partisan politics with a nuclear weapons threat. "Listening to some Democrats, you'd think the enemy was George Bush, not Kim Jong Il," he said.
Seizing on North Korea's actions to argue Republicans are stronger on security than Democrats is riddled with pitfalls and leaves the GOP's standard-bearer - Bush - as well as his rank-and-file vulnerable to criticism.
Story Continues Below The president long has faced complaints that he has failed to sufficiently address North Korea and the threat has festered on his watch.
In the nearly five years since Bush labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, Kim Jong Il's government has withdrawn from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, announced it has nuclear weapons, refused to return to six-nation talks and launched seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, including a long-range Taepodong-2.
On Sunday, North Korea said it conducted its first-ever nuclear test.
© 2006 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
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Bush Administration Inside Cover Stories
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