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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday vented U.S. impatience with North Korea saying the nuclear dispute "can't go on forever¡± and must be resolved.
She made the comment in a press conference Sunday following a meeting with Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. Rice left Korea for China on Sunday on the last leg of a six-nation whistlestop tour of Asia.
Rice again stressed that Washington has no intention of agreeing to the bilateral talks Pyongyang is demanding. She said the North Korean media had been calling for bilateral talks but the U.S. would not deviate from the framework of the six-party talks and is not interested in separate bilateral negotiations. In a speech at Japan¡¯s Sophia University, she earlier said the U.S. would not repeat historic disasters like the 1994 Geneva Accords.
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks during a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon after their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul on Sunday.
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Rice has also dug in her heels in response to North Korean demands that she apologize for labeling Pyongyang an ¡°outpost of tyranny¡±, telling the Washington Times on March 11, ¡°Well, I don't think there's any doubt that I spoke the truth. And I don't know that one apologizes for speaking of the truth.¡±
But in more conciliatory language Sunday she also stressed North Korea was a sovereign nation and a dialogue partner in the six-party talks and the US. had no intention of attacking it. She said the U.S. put on the table the security guarantees and energy aid the North has requested and is prepared to discuss all the issues North Korea wants to raise once it returns to the talks.
This is unlikely to satisfy Pyongyang, however, which wants Washington to take the ¡°outpost of tyranny¡± comment back and agree to direct bilateral talks. A South Korean government official said that if Rice¡¯s talks with the Chinese failed to get results, the six-party talks will likely stall for some time. Rice wants to press China to do more to restart the talks.
Saiki Akitaka, deputy director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told a conference in Shanghai attended by experts from nations participating in the talks that if North Korea refuses to return to the talks, the issue would have to be referred to the U.N. Security Council.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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