A secret Donald Rumsfeld memorandum calling for regime change in North Korea was leaked yesterday, opening a fresh foreign policy split in the Bush administration.
The classified discussion paper, circulated by the defense secretary, appears to cut directly across State Department plans to disarm Kim Jong-il, the North’s dictator, through threats leavened by promises that his regime is not a target for overthrow.
The paper does not call for military action against North Korea, but wants the United States to team up with China in pushing for the collapse of Kim Jong-il’s bankrupt but belligerent regime, the New York Times reported.
In a sign that Washington is girding itself for a repetition of the bitter rows that preceded the Iraq conflict, the memorandum was leaked on the same day that a senior State Department negotiator flew to Beijing for three-way talks with China and North Korea.
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