North Korea has admitted for the first time it’s been conducting a secret program to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea acknowledged the program earlier this month when a U.S. envoy was visiting Pyongyang. Analysts said the revelations strengthen the prospect that North Korea, considered by President-select Bush to be part of an “Axis of Evil,” could be a future target, after Iraq, of a U.S. invasion. Diplomats in Seoul said they feared a repeat of a 1994 crisis, when the Korean Peninsula came close to armed conflict after the U.S. first accused North Korea of developing nuclear weapons. War was avoided in '94 by a deal called the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed to halt nuclear weapons development in return for the U.S. and its allies building a nuclear power station in the energy-starved country. Diplomats said North Korea's apparent violation of the Agreed Framework, which has helped maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula over the last eight years, put the deal under serious threat of collapse.

On Wednesday, President Bush issued an uncompromising challenge to Iraq and the U.N. Security Council, threatening military action if Baghdad fails to disclose all its weapons. Setting a low threshold for military action against Iraq, Bush insisted Saddam Hussein’s regime be required to issue “an accurate and full and complete accounting” of all weapons before the return of U.N. weapons inspectors. Failure to do this would be treated as a sign of its bad faith and aggressive intent. Negotiations over the U.S. draft resolution have been deadlocked for the past month, as the United States and France appear to have dug in to their respective positions. While diplomats still see room for compromise, Paris believes no resolution better than only one resolution, and Washington is insisting on one more resolution or nothing at all.

Also on Wednesday, the Bush administration’s push for an early U.S.-led invasion of Iraq drew broad opposition in an unusual open debate of the U.N. Security Council. Many countries backed weapons inspections, and Arab states said they would not support an attack without U.N. endorsement, considering an attack only as a last resort. The two-day public debate in the Security Council was called at the insistence of the Non-Aligned Movement, a loose coalition of developing nations, speakers today from countries that do not hold seats on the 15-member council but were invited to join the debate. Iraq defiantly denied charges that it had failed to comply with council resolutions requiring it to give up weapons of mass destruction. Iraq called the U.N. economic sanctions against the country an act of genocide.

Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, who formerly headed Central Command for U.S. forces in the Middle East, is the latest member of the military brass to question President Bush’s war plans. He said, “I’m not sure which planet they live on, because it isn’t the one that I travel.” Again, these the words of Admiral Zinni when discussing how the Bush administration downplayed the importance of Arab sentiment in the region.

President Bush said Wednesday that he would expect Israeli Prime Minister General Ariel Sharon to respond appropriately if Iraq launched a missile attack on his country. During a meeting Wednesday at the White House, Bush also is expected to urge Sharon to show restraint in dealing with the Palestinians. The Bush administration is concerned that an upsurge in Palestinian-Israeli violence could hinder efforts to win allies in the Arab world for an attack on Iraq.

Two bombs ripped through adjacent shopping centers in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga today, killing at least five and wounding more than 140 others. Police defused seven other explosive devices planted around the commercial area. The military labeled the attack a terrorist act and blamed the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group. The attack came just hours after Lieutenant General Abaya assumed his post as top commander in the south and vowed to crush Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas operating in nearby Basilan and Jolo islands. Police said 16 people were detained after today’s attacks.

During the Cold War, the United States ran a much broader aerial intelligence operation than previously acknowledged, sending spy planes into China, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The National Security Archive released declassified documents yesterday that indicate the U.S. effort to secretly photograph sensitive foreign targets went far beyond widely publicized U-2 flights over the Soviet Union, Cuba and the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s and ’60s.

The head of military police at the U.S. detention center for Taliban prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been removed from his command and reports he was “too nice” to prisoners. The Washington Times said Brigadier General Rick Baccus irritated his bosses when he decided to allow the Red Cross to put up posters advising detainees they need only provide their name, rank and number during questioning. The newspaper’s sources said Baccus was undermining the interrogation efforts by his treatment of the detainees, to whom he would say, “Peace be with you,” before each loudspeaker address. Nearly 600 detainees are being held at the camp.

The White House retreated Wednesday from its criticism of a ballistic fingerprinting technology that helps authorities trace ammunition found at crime scenes. The administration plans to study the possibility of a national database to record the unique markings made by guns when they are fired. The overnight change reflects the new complications that the elusive sniper in the Washington suburbs has introduced to the gun control debate with an election three weeks away. Political consultants said Bush risked alienating suburban swing voters by echoing the National Rifle Association’s opposition to the technology at a sensitive time.