Bush takes swipe at North Korea as he starts Asia trip

ALASKA - President Bush took a thinly-veiled swipe at North Korea as he flew to Asia today, saying he would "do what it takes" to stop nations that develop weapons of mass destruction.

Without naming North Korea, Iran or Iraq by name, Bush put the three nations that he branded an "axis of evil" last month on notice that if they built such weapons and sold them to "terrorist organisations" he would take forceful action.

"One of the most dangerous things that can happen to ... our nation is that these terrorist organisations hook up with nations that develop weapons of mass destruction," Bush told several thousand US airmen as he flew to Japan, South Korea and China for a six-day Asian tour.

While the trip is also expected to cover reviving the moribund Japanese economy and improving the often prickly U.S.-Chinese relationship, it is likely to be dominated by Bush's hard-line stance toward reclusive, Stalinist North Korea.

Bush's "axis of evil" comment infuriated Pyongyang, which responded with harsh rhetoric of its own, and it caused some anxiety in South Korea, where it appeared to undermine President Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of gradual rapprochement with the North.

On Saturday, Bush said one of his deepest fears was that nations with "a dark history and an ugly past" would develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons that could be delivered by missile and sell them.

"There are such nations in the world. Of course we'd like for them to change their ways and will continue to pressure them to do so .... but if they do not the United States will do what it takes to defend our freedom. Make no mistake about it," he told cheering troops, some of whom perched on a fighter in an Elmendorf Air Force Base hangar.

While Bush's warnings appeared directed at North Korea, which Washington has long accused of selling missiles around the world, he also alluded to Iraq, which is widely expected to be the next target of the US war on terrorism launched after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"People who have got something to hide make us nervous, particularly those who have gassed their own citizens," he said in a clear reference to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

LOADED GUNS

After speaking to the troops and attending a political fund-raising event in Alaska, Bush was scheduled to complete a journey curtailed last October after the Sept. 11 attacks by spending two days each in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing.

Bush begins his trip in Tokyo, where he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and stress the need for Japan to make significant reforms to its economy, now suffering from its third recession in a decade.

In addition to his talks with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, Bush's two-day visit to Seoul will include a stop at the Demilitarised Zone, the mined buffer zone bisecting the Korean Peninsula with some 1.7 million soldiers, including 37,000 US troops, arrayed on either side.

While Bush has said he is willing to have talks with North Korea, he also said he wants the reclusive, Stalinist state's leader, Kim Jong-il, to stand down his armed forces.

"It's impossible to have peace on the peninsula if there are loaded guns pointed at somebody's head," he said on Friday, calling on Kim Jong-il to "move your arms back."

In Beijing, Bush will meet Chinese President Jiang Zemin and take the measure of his possible successor, Vice President Hu Jintao. No private meeting is scheduled with Hu, but the White House said they may cross paths. Bush will also make a nationally televised speech at Beijing's Qinghua University.

Bush and Jiang will again confront prickly issues such as arms proliferation, human rights, Taiwan and the US missile defense program, and are unlikely to make any breakthroughs during the visit on Thursday and Friday, US officials and outside experts said.

The two are likely to exchange words of reassurance that their intentions are not hostile, and use the symbolism provided by the 30th anniversary of former US President Richard Nixon's groundbreaking trip to China to try to chart a long-term path to good relations.

However, Bush was expected to press Jiang on human rights and religious freedom, particularly after China on Friday denounced the Falun Gong spiritual movement for "stirring up trouble" at Beijing's Tiananmen Square and expelled 53 Western members detained over a protest a day earlier.