Sources in Washington said that on April 22, a special envoy of the U.S. State Department delivered the warning to North Korea's UN mission in New York. The envoy explained opinion was split in Washington. While President Bush favored a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were leaning toward military action. The envoy said if the talks collapsed, the president had no choice but to find other alternatives including a military option.

The Sankei said the U.S., to show it was not bluffing, dispatched F117 Stealth fighters that can escape radar detection to their forces in South Korea. The paper said it was only then that North Korea announced it will return. The daily said now the talk of a military option could re-emerge since the North has become reluctant to resume dialogue citing U.S. financial sanctions like the freezing of North Korean firms' overseas assets.

It's not news that a military option was on the table, but if this is true it is the first I've heard that they were actually threatened with it. I don't think a military solution is the best course, but in the end it may end up being the only one.

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