NORTH KOREA . . . BETTER RED-FACED THAN DEAD

Defense Secretary William Perry and Secretary of State Warren Christopher faced down a skeptical Senate committee today with assurances that theU.S.-North Korea nuclear agreementwas a better choice than war. In fact, Perry revealed during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had considered a military strike last summer, but had ultimately rejected it as a likely prelude to all-out war in the Korean Peninsula. "That would involve the deployment of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops, and that would involve a full-scale -- full-scale -- war," Perry said. Christopher assured the senators that the nuclear agreement -- which trades U.S. oil and Asian nuclear reactors for an end to Pyongyang's own nuclear program -- left no room for trust: "This is not going to be a relaxed situation for many years to come."