MEDIA REACTION NORTH KOREA; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 001466 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER LONDON FOR GURNEY PARIS FOR NEARY NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION NORTH KOREA; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "China shows the way" the pro- government weekly "The Sunday Mirror" dedicated its July 20 editorial to hailing China's "efforts to encourage and promote a diplomatic solution" over a crisis stemming from North Korea's alleged nuclear weapons program. Excerpts follow: ¶2. ". . .The vast Asian country's efforts to encourage and promote a diplomatic solution of the current nuclear controversy are commendable and serve to show the direction in which all attempts to resolve the this thorny issue should take. On the contrary, the Bush administration has been pressing the Security Council for action on North Korea, an effort Pyongyang tried to stop in a letter to the Council last month. . .The recent experience of the Iraq invasion. . .should serve as a lesson on how not to approach the North Korean issue. And unlike Iraq, North Korea does have a weapons of mass destruction program in place, which makes the threat of nuclear war more than a real possibility. . . ." SULLIVAN