Thomas Daschle: “I commend the Secretary of State for the strong presentation to the United Nations Security Council that he made…”

“I commend the Secretary of State for the strong presentation to the United Nations Security Council that he made yesterday. He confirmed what many of us already knew--that Saddam Hussein is a threat who has, once again, failed to live up to his commitments to the international community. And he did it at a place many of us had been pressing him and the administration to do it--at the United Nations. I hope that President Bush will use Secretary Powell's presentation to build a broad international coalition to confront Iraq. Our national security is better served if he does. But, as the world's attention was focused on Secretary Powell and his presentation, an even more ominous development regarding weapons of mass destruction was taking place in North Korea. Yesterday, North Korea announced that it had flipped the switch and restarted a power plant that can be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. This is but the latest in a series of aggressive steps North Korea has taken to kick into gear its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them--steps that our intelligence community believes indicate that Iraq is months, if not years, away from being able to take.”