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How significant is the North Korean blast?
October 10, 2006 12:10 PM
White House correspondent Jessica Yellin blogs about today’s gaggle:
At today's off-camera morning briefing, called the White House gaggle, Tony Snow got into it over just how significant the North Korean blast really is. When asked about the "massive event," Snow shot back, "a massive event?" The reporter rephrased, "a big deal event..." and Snow responded, "a big-deal event?" Snow allowed "there was an event," and added, "you could say the earth moved." (At left, Snow in August.)
Yesterday the President himself called North Korea’s claim that they conducted a nuclear test "a threat to international peace and security." And the U.N. Security Council met in emergency session. It's hard to imagine they'd do that for a small-deal event.
So why did Snow downplay the significance?
Snow says he wasn't downplaying anything -- he was just being snarky, teasing a reporter… It’s his style. But he's clearly pushing the press corps to be more skeptical about what happened. He points out U.S. scientists still haven't confirmed it was a nuclear test. Snow even floated the theory that if the blast was nuclear -- perhaps it was something “old and off the shelf,” something "dormant" they pulled out to provoke us.
Why is Snow pushing the wait-and-see message? Perhaps there's concern that the story has gotten ahead of the facts. Perhaps the White House wants to buy time -- to hammer out a deal in the Security Council before the U.S. announces just what the test was. But it seems more likely that this was a debating tactic. Snow was being peppered with questions about U.S. policy and why the President believes doing more of the same with North Korea will yield a different result now. When Snow got an opening to challenge the premise of the question, he took it home. It made for a colorful morning gaggle. Unclear whether the White House really wanted to leave us with the message: White House considers North Korean test no big deal. We have to remember -- he was just being snarky.
October 10, 2006 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (1)
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The Russian military has confirmed this was a nuclear test- “It is 100 per cent (certain) that it was an underground nuclear explosion,” - Head of Russian defense ministry dept.
But it doesn't really matter if the White House denies the test or not, South Korean media is reporting some hints from North Korean diplomats that more tests are likely on the way. This thing isn’t blowing over for the Bush Admin and GOP any time soon
Posted by: ryan | Oct 10, 2006 3:08:23 PM
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