|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Pressure mounts on North Korea for nuclear talks
US President Bush urged North Korea to return to six-party negotiations on its nuclear program "for the sake of peace and tranquility," adding to pressure on Pyongyang from China to rejoin the talks.
Bush was speaking at a news conference on Wednesday after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned from a tour of Asia during which she said Washington could not wait forever for Pyongyang to return to the talks.
Nevertheless, Bush denied setting a June deadline for the resumption of the talks and said the five nations that have been negotiating with Pyongyang -- the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia -- were united in seeking North Korea's return to the negotiating table.
"I'm a patient person. And so are a lot of people that are involved in this issue. But the leader of North Korea must understand that when we five nations speak, we mean what we say," Bush said.
"There is a way forward, I repeat, for Kim Jong-il. And it's his choice to make. We've made our choice. China has made its choice. The other countries have made their choices," Bush said.
"And for the sake of peace and tranquility and stability in the Far East, Kim Jong-il must listen," he said.
China, which hosted three inconclusive rounds of the talks last year, also upped the pressure when North Korean premier Pak Pong-ju met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Wednesday.
"It is in our common interests to stick to a nuclear weapon- free Korean Peninsula, resolve DPRK's rational concerns, and maintain peace and stability on the peninsula," Hu said, according to a report from state news agency Xinhua.
DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
MAKE GOOD
Pak passed on a letter from North Korean leader Kim to the Chinese president, who was also likely to have pressed Pak to make good on comments that the North also supports the talks.
On Tuesday, Pak told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao the North had not abandoned the process.
"The Korean side does not oppose the six-party talks, nor has it given up on the talks. If conditions are mature, the North Korean side is prepared to join the six-party talks at any time," Chinese TV quoted him as saying.
While Pak's China itinerary is peppered with factory tours and he was to leave for the financial capital, Shanghai, on Wednesday. Rice urged Beijing on Monday, shortly before returning home, to do all that it can to bring the North back to the discussions.
"To sum up what Secretary of State Rice told the Chinese, the United States cannot wait for more than a year from the previous round of talks," a diplomatic source said in Tokyo.
"Obviously, one of the options that the United States has in mind beyond that is to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council," the source added.
But Chinese President Hu hinted it was too early to go to the United Nations. "Dialogue is the only correct choice for peacefully resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," Xinhua quoted him as saying. In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made similar remarks -- although he would not rule out the U.N. option entirely. "I believe North Korea will return to the six-party talks ... We need not refer it to the U.N. Security Council now," he told reporters on Wednesday. He said, however, that it would be an option to bring the case to the international body if Pyongyang refused to return to the six-party talks for too long. North Korea has demanded that the United States apologize for labeling Pyongyang "an outpost of tyranny" and end its "hostile policy" before resuming negotiations. Last month, North Korea declared for the first time it had nuclear weapons, saying it needed them to counter what it called hostile American policies. On Monday, Pyongyang said it had increased its nuclear arsenal. The statement was issued just as Rice concluded her whirlwind Asia tour and said other means would have to be considered if the North continued to avoid talks -- her strongest hint yet the United States might resort to sanctions. Chinese officials have suggested Washington engage in direct talks with Pyongyang, meeting a key North Korean demand. Washington rejects that, saying the two sides can talk with each other within the six-party format. |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
