Bush sends letter to North Korean leader

President Bush directly told North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in a letter that the United States expects the secretive regime to keep its promise to fully disclose all nuclear programs, the White House said Thursday.\nIt was Bush’s most personal intervention with Pyongyang, the North Korean capitol, since he called the country part of an “axis of evil.”\nThe letter to North Korea underscored Bush’s desire to resolve the nuclear standoff with the communist regime, and made plain that the North cannot skirt requirements to fully explain the extent, use and possible spread of nuclear material and technology, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.\nThat is the message the North has already heard from Bush’s nuclear envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, but the Bush letter is a diplomatic exclamation point. It also serves a domestic political purpose — signaling to conservative critics of the North Korea deal that the United States will not roll back its requirements or accept less than a full declaration of the North’s nuclear program.\nThe North agreed to fully account for its nuclear activities by year’s end, but U.S. officials acknowledged Thursday that the deadline is likely to slip.\nThe North conducted a clandestine nuclear program for years and proved its entry into the world nuclear club with an underground test explosion last year.\nAn official said Hill discussed the likelihood of a late declaration during meetings over the past week with the North and the other four nations bargaining alongside the United States to eventually rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.\nThe official spoke on condition of anonymity in describing the closed-door diplomatic meetings.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed optimism, but also suggested the schedule is sliding.\n“It is going to take a monumental effort to get all of this done by the end of the year,” she said, speaking to reporters on Thursday as she flew to Brussels for NATO meetings. “And I am not too concerned about whether it’s Dec. 31 or not. They seem to be on track. Everybody believes the cooperation is very good.”\nHill delivered Bush’s letter, dated Dec. 1, to North Korea’s foreign minister during Hill’s visit to Pyongyang earlier this week. Hill also gave similar letters from Bush to China, South Korea and Japan, and another letter went to the fifth partner, Russia.\nNeither the White House nor the State Department would release the letters or describe their content in detail.\nThe question of proliferation has taken on great significance and become a political hurdle for the Bush administration, since Israel’s air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear site Sept. 6. Intelligence reports suggested that Syria was cooperating in some fashion with North Korea in building the site.