Associated Press
SANTA FE — Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador who has parleyed with North Korea, is urging diplomacy in dealing with an announcement by North Korea that it had set off an underground nuclear test.
Richardson, who said he considers the test a hostile act, urged the Bush administration to seek immediate support from the United Nations Security Council for U.S. efforts to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons development.
The crisis needs face-to-face diplomacy, Richardson said in a statement released late Sunday.
The Democratic governor, who was U.N. ambassador and U.S. energy secretary during the Clinton administration, visited North Korea in October 2005 at the request of the Pyongyang regime. He toured North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon as part of his effort to try to derail the development of nuclear weapons.
Shortly after taking office in 2003, the governor met in Santa Fe for three days with North Korean envoys.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., in a statement released by his office, said the U.N. Security Council "must take immediate action to sanction North Korea so that the nonproliferation threat is minimized and meaningful consequences are imposed to rein in this dangerous government.''
"With this provocative action, North Korea has clearly demonstrated its contempt for diplomacy and negotiation,'' he said.
Rep. Heather Wilson, speaking in Albuquerque on Monday, said the North Korean test is "a reminder that we live in a dangerous world of unstable dictators.''
She said the United States should "directly engage'' North Korea in the context of the six-party talks — sessions among China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Ninety percent of North Korea's oil and 43 percent of its food come from China, so sanctions from other Asian nations "would have much more impact than the United States alone,'' she said.
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