Rice Presses North Korean Envoy On Nukes

Secretary Of State Delivers "Very Strong Message" On Nuclear Verification In First Top-Level Meeting In 4 Years

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with North Korea's top diplomat in Singapore Wednesday, ending a four-year hiatus in cabinet-level contacts between the Bush administration and the Stalinist state over its nuclear program.

Rice said she and the foreign ministers of four other nations at Wednesday's gathering would press North Korea to prove it is telling the truth about its past atomic activities as part of an international effort to get it to abandon nuclear weapons.

Diplomats have said they expect the North's foreign minister to present his country's position on a proposal to verify it has disabled its nuclear facilities.

Rice was hoping to gauge North Korea's commitment to efforts to get the country to abandon its nuclear weapons programs during her meeting with Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations annual security forum in Singapore.

North Korea has been given a four-page draft document detailing what the United States says it must do to prove it has told the truth about its past atomic programs, a key element in the six-nation denuclearization initiative.

Diplomats expect Pak to provide at least an initial response to the proposal at the meeting with Rice and the foreign ministers of the other four nations involved: China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

"It will give some indication of the amount of effort the North Koreans have put into completing this verification protocol," the chief U.S. negotiator to the nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, said late Tuesday.

The draft calls for intrusive inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities, soil sampling, interviews with key scientists and a role for U.N. atomic experts. Hill travels on Friday to the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna to brief them on developments.

The proposal was presented to the North Koreans earlier this month by Hill and representatives of the other four nations pushing the denuclearization effort.

Hill said the goal is to reach a formal agreement on the document by mid-August after negotiations on the fine points, some of which the North Koreans have already objected to.

"They made some preliminary comments and indicated some problems with it," he said. "But we have to see what their considered comments back from the capital are."

South Korea's main nuclear envoy Kim Sook said Tuesday that: "The ball is actually in the North Korean court because they already received the draft of the verification protocol."

If Pyongyang agrees to the proposal, it would lead to the start of a key process of checking if the North turned in a correct account of its nuclear activity and facilities last month in a step toward their dismantlement and eventual abandonment.

Verification is expected to take months to complete and the administration of President Bush is eager to make quick progress in its last six months in office.

Officials, including Rice, who will be meeting a North Korean foreign minister for the first time, have played down chances of any breakthrough at Wednesday's meeting, which has been organized by China as an informal session.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, though, that the gathering "will be very good for advancing the agenda of the talks."

Rice says she plans to deliver "a very strong message" that the process "really needs to be completed, and that it has to be a verification protocol that can give us confidence."

She has refused to describe the meeting as an historic or landmark event, it will be the Bush administration's highest-level contact since 2004 with North Korea, a charter member of the president's "axis of evil."

It comes amid positive developments in the six-nation effort to get the North to denuclearize. The campaign began in 2003, but then stalled and gained steam only after Pyongyang detonated an atomic device in 2006.

In June, North Korea submitted a long-delayed list of its nuclear programs involving plutonium, but it did not include details about nuclear weapons, an alleged uranium enrichment program and possible nuclear proliferation with country's such as Syria.

Rice made clear that those concerns still have to be addressed if progress is to continue. "We (need) a way to address proliferation as well as all nuclear programs, including highly enriched uranium," she said.

Still in return for its steps, Washington announced it would remove the North from its terrorism blacklist and relaxed some economic sanctions on the communist nation. That led Pyongyang to blow up the cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor.

[randynason]

Rice = war criminal.

[kennedy7955]

"Is it just me?....or do Bush administration officials seem to have a problem with credibility? Posted by Tawpdawg11 at 01:01 AM : Jul 23, 2008"

"it''''s just you Posted by jamesm12341"

jamesm12341 it''s just you, not Tawpdawg11.

[kennedy7955]

We have seen more diplomacy in the last 60 days from the Bush administration than in the previous 8 years. I suppose better late than never.

[kennedy7955]

There is nothing the North Koreans can do that would give any country confidence that they are telling the truth or living up to any obligations on any issue. That being said, all the US and it partners in the region can do is rely on a, "best guess" and proceed from that point.

[Gary Kempf]

Is she pressing with her lips or hips?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by rharrin1 at 06:29 AM : Jul 23, 2008

Interesting consept, disturbing image, yukkkk!

[husein_pasha]

It`s high time that Condomleezza stopped mixing in the foreign affairs

[jav2000]

Rice said she and the foreign ministers of four other nations at Wednesday''s gathering would press North Korea to prove it is telling the truth about its past atomic activities as part of an international effort to get it to abandon nuclear weapons. SOME SHOULD HAVE ASKED BUSH TO PROVE IF HE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT WMD''S

[talkingham]

Oh, the price of oil has been dropping so they have to trot Kindaloser out to stir up world tensions again.

[babooph]

Condi was sent-the only one in the administration who can speak on her own-too bad she speaks for an idiot.

[babooph]

At one time,the administration threatened the North with war-now that would get a good laugh from Kim.He may worry a lot more if either of the two now running become Cin Chief.

[harpoot]

"Is she pressing with her lips or hips? "

They eat Rice in that part of the world.

[missingamerica]

lolll...yeah, we know...N. Korea ain''t got no oil, Pa guy...

[missingamerica]

Ahhh, peace...why, it won''t be long before some canny U.S. businessman has North Korean workers assembling multicore processors and pulse switching devices for $0.02 (U.S. - cheapest of all!) an hour....

[stn_sage]

After shutting down their reactors, and demolishing the cooling towers and preparing to allow inspections, the US has reneged on its part of the deal, and not one of the US sanctions has been lifted.

Posted by brianbwb at 05:58 AM : Jul 23, 2008
---------------------------------------------

Well, thanks for reporting this in your post!
I read the news everyday, and I hadn''t heard this!
However, I''m not surprised, though. It''s typical Bush administration tactics: promise something, lie about it, and renege on your promise(s)!

It''s why Bush & co. can''t be trusted and why America is so hated around the world!

Please explain to your overseas associates that the average American is unaware of these things because it''s not reported to them by the media---because most of it isn''t!

[brianbwb-2009]

"Is it just me?....or do Bush administration officials seem to have a problem with credibility?" Posted by Tawpdawg11

No it is not just you.

Over here in Singapore, the news media reports that the North Koreans are unhappy with the lack of promised reciprocity. After shutting down their reactors, and demolishing the cooling towers and preparing to allow inspections, the US has reneged on its part of the deal, and not one of the US sanctions has been lifted.

So now North Korea is demanding not only that the US honor it''s part of the bargain, they now call for the US to lift all sanctions.

This is the bit the news services don''t tell Americans.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Is it just me?....or do Bush administration officials seem to have a problem with credibility?" Posted by Tawpdawg11

No it is not just you.

Over here in Singapore, the news media reports that the North Koreans are unhappy with the lack of promised reciprocity. After shutting down their reactors, and demolishing the cooling towers and preparing to allow inspections, the US has reneged on its part of the deal, and not one of the US sanctions has been lifted.

So now North Korea is demanding not only that the US honor it''s part of the bargain, they now call for the US to lift all sanctions.

This is the bit the news services don''t tell Americans.

[nextgenman]

Rice is hot

Posted by lazareth at 05:24 AM : Jul 23, 2008
------------

Must be that gap in her teeth.

[ramos937]

Dear Sec Rice. Please just show up for the photo ops and leave the actual work to the pros.

[harp1963]

I thought we were buddies with North Korea again. Can''t the Greedapublicans become more consistant with their scare tactics. One day North Korea is invading us with a fleet of rubber jon boats and the next day Iran is invading us with their fleet of rubber jon boats all while our imports from America''s fortune 500 companies increase exports to Iran tenfold during the Bush years.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/09/us-exports-to-iran-grew-tenfold-under-bush/

Can the Bush Administration get their election year scare tactics right? Maybe it''s really the ghost of Saddam Hussein that we''re supposed to be afraid of so we''ll vote for McCain?

[tawpdawg11]

You can''''t negotiate with these scumbags.

Posted by lazareth

Remember how mean Kim Jung Ill was in Team America?