Once again, Rex Posts a link to a secondary source that takes a statement out of context and puts its own spin on a perfectly innoculous statement. The situations, while having some similiarities, have very different cirumstances, which the speaker is pointing out. We have economic and political leverage on N. Korea that did not exist in the Iraq scenario.
Link to Full Q & A session:
Wolfowitz transcript
Wolfowitz: The concern about implosion is not primarily at all a matter of the weapons that North Korea has, but a fear particularly by South Korea and also to some extent China of what the larger implications are for them of having 20 million people on their borders in a state of potential collapse and anarchy. It’s is also a question of whether, if one wants to persuade the regime to change, whether you have to find -- and I think you do -- some kind of outcome that is acceptable to them. But that outcome has to be acceptable to us, and it has to include meeting our non-proliferation goals.
Look, the primarily difference -- to put it a little too simply -- between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with North Korea is very different from that with Iraq. (Italics mine) The problems in both cases have some similarities but the solutions have got to be tailored to the circumstances which are very different.
EDIT: Wow, everybody is quick on the trigger today.
2nd Edit: Note the first question from the Japanese press
Wolfowitz in Tokyo
[ June 04, 2003, 20:50: Message edited by: kalthalior ]