The US said on Thursday that the situation in North Korea was ‘‘very serious’’ and that Pyongyang had embarked on a dangerous course after defiantly violating agreements not to develop nuclear arms. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jun a day after the North rejected a call by the International Atomic Energy Agency to open its nuclear arms program to inspections. Rumsfeld said the defense chiefs discussed military contingency plans for the tense peninsula, but refused to give details. They stressed that the crisis should be resolved using combined political pressure on North Korea from Washington, Seoul, Japan, Russia, China and the European Union. ‘‘There is no question but that the situation in North Korea is very serious. They have violated several agreements and proceeded on a very dangerous course,’’ Rumsfeld said after an annual Security Consultative meeting with the South Koreans. (Reuters)
