The US does not plan military action against North Korea, in spite of escalating tensions over its moves to activate nuclear facilities, Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said today.
"We've said it repeatedly, the president has said it repeatedly," Mr Powell told ABC television. "Nobody's going to attack North Korea."
"Military action is never off the table in the sense that it is not an option," Mr Powell told CBS television. "We just don't think the circumstances at this time require us to point a gun at someone's head."
President George W. Bush, however, "always has every option," he added in several interviews with US television networks.
North Korea's drive to activate nuclear facilities that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium has sparked anxiety and condemnation from the international community.
Tensions have risen since North Korea ordered International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to leave the nuclear complex in Yongbyon by Tuesday.
"I don't know if this is brinkmanship or whether or not they're serious, but we're taking it seriously," Mr Powell told Fox News.
He added that Washington does not feel the situation "rises to a crisis atmosphere" but noted that Washington "can't appease" Pyongyang.
"We believe that we can mobilize international community," he told CBS, adding: "We also have to be quite considerate of the views of our South Korean friends, who are not anxious to see a crisis break out at a time of transition from one president to a new president.
"And we have to be considerate of the views of the Japanese, the Russians and Chinese. We believe there are other tools available to us that we can use in this time of seriousness, short of threatening somebody with a weapon," Mr Powell said.
North Korea said on December 12th it is restarting a five-megawatt facility at Yongbyon because it needs electricity after the US cut off fuel shipments last month.
But the IAEA accuses North Korea of moving fresh nuclear fuel rods to the research reactor, which is said to be capable of producing plutonium.