 Assistant secretary of state Rust Deming told Congress “to be frank, we have in past years not always met the fuel year deadline.”

In January 2002 U.S. President George W. Bush labeled North Korea in his first State of the Union Address as part of an Axis of Evil.In October 2002, a U.S. delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly visited North Korea to confront the North Koreans with the U.S. assessment that they had a uranium enrichment program.The parties' reports of the meeting differ.