Do Couric and Gibson agree with Tony Snow that questions about Bush administration's North Korea policy are "silly" and "gratuitous"?

During an October 10 press briefing, when asked if there was "anything that President Bush "would have done differently" in the six years leading up to North Korea's alleged October 8 test detonation of a nuclear weapon and whether Bush "believe[s] he has made any mistakes in this," White House press secretary Tony Snow dismissed the questions as "silly" and "gratuitous." That same day, ABC's World News with Charles Gibson and the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric featured interviews with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the situation in North Korea. The portions of the interviews aired on each network, however, offered no indication that either Gibson or Couric asked Rice about any possible mistakes or failures in the Bush administration's North Korea policy during the administration's first six years.

On World News, Gibson asked Rice only to comment on Bush's 2003 comment that "we will not tolerate a nuclear North Korea," which Gibson characterized as a more "declarative" statement than "[w]ell, we're gonna try to get sanctions passed," and on whether China will cooperate with U.S.-backed sanctions on North Korea. Gibson asked: "Have the Chinese said to us, 'Yes, we will cut off their oil and the other trade that is most critical to them'?"

In segments of the interview that did not air, Gibson asked Rice further questions of the implications of the alleged North Korean nuclear test, but did not ask whether the administration could have made any mistakes in their North Korean policy up to this point. For instance, Gibson asked whether Rice believed sanctions would work against North Korea, why the administration was now "talking about inducements to the North Koreans to try and get them to moderate their behavior" when they had previously been "critical" of such actions, and whether Rice thought North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is "trying to use this [nuclear test] as a threat or is he trying to use this as a lever to get himself some leverage with the international community."

The portion of Couric's interview with Rice that aired on the October 10 broadcast of the CBS Evening News featured Couric asking four questions of Rice: whether "a nuclear-armed North Korea now poses a greater threat to U.S. security than other members of the so-called axis of evil"; "What do you, the president, and your entire foreign policy team have against one-on-one talks with North Korea?"; whether Rice was "concerned at all ... that Iran has been emboldened by North Korea's actions"; and "when it comes to North Korea having nuclear weapons, is the scariest part of this whole equation the notion of having these weapons get into the wrong hands?" To date, there is no indication that Couric asked questions of Rice that were not aired on the October 10 broadcast.

From the October 10 edition of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson:

GIBSON: The president said a couple of years ago, "We will not tolerate a nuclear North Korea." That's a pretty declarative sentence. "We will not tolerate." And it seems a lot stronger than, "Well, we're gonna try to get sanctions passed."

RICE: We are going to get sanctions passed, because we can't tolerate a nuclear North Korea. The -- and we're not the only ones. The important thing here is that you're getting universal, international condemnation. We'll see how long North Korea can really tolerate the isolation from even those who are closest to it. But I do believe that we have the right configuration now, both to make an agreement stick, if we get one, but also to pressure the North Koreans to take a different course.

GIBSON: Have the Chinese said to us, "Yes, we will cut off their oil and the other trade that is most critical to them"?

RICE: Well, the Chinese have said that they will take serious steps to deal with the North Korean problem. We're gonna have a sanctions resolution in the [U.N.] Security Council. We'll see how the North Koreans react to that. It is important that our security alliances make very clear to the North Koreans that we will not permit a deterioration of the security environment in this region. We have many arrows in our quiver. And we'll start to use them.

From the October 10 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:

COURIC: What do you, the president, and your entire foreign policy team have against one-on-one talks with North Korea?

RICE: You have to ask yourself, Katie, why are the North Koreans so insistent that there be bilateral talks? It's because they don't want the pressure of having China and South Korea and Russia and Japan at the table, too. They would like nothing better than to have all of the pressure be on the United States to deliver a deal.

COURIC: Iran today announced that it won't step back from its nuclear program. Are you concerned at all, Madam Secretary, that Iran has been emboldened by North Korea's actions?

RICE: Well, I would think it would be just the opposite -- that when Iran watches the fundamental condemnation that the international community has delivered as a result of the North Korean program.

COURIC: And finally, when it comes to North Korea having nuclear weapons, is the scariest part of this whole equation the notion of having these weapons get into the wrong hands?

RICE: Well, certainly, one of the great worries if North Korea were to continue down this path is that it would try to transfer a weapon to either another state or, perhaps even more alarmingly, to a non-state actor, a terrorist. But the president's made very clear that North Korea would be held fully accountable for any effort to try to use weapons technologies to threaten the security interests of the United States and its allies, and certainly the transfer of these technologies would do precisely that.