Rice to meet with Chinese officials on N. Korean nuke verification regime

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will
meet with Chinese officials early next month to discuss ways to persuade North
Korea to agree to a verification regime for its nuclear facilities, her spokesman
said Thursday.
"I am sure the subject of verification protocol will come up in her discussions
with the Chinese," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, noting Rice will
fly to Beijing next month to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the restoration
of bilateral ties on her last trip to China as secretary of state.
Wood, however, said he did not know of "any specific meetings coming up with the
North."
"It's hard to say at this point whether there will be any meetings or contacts
with North Koreans," he said. "We'll have to see what happens after the Christmas
holiday."
In the latest round of the six-party talks earlier this month, North Korea
refused to sign an agreement on a verification protocol, which includes taking
samples from its main nuclear reactor for scientific verification of its past and
current nuclear activities. The six parties include the two Koreas, Japan and
Russia.
North Korea did agree to visits by international inspectors to its declared
nuclear sites, as well as to interviews with its scientists and viewing of
related documents.
North Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, said at that time that he will
sign a verification protocol later, in the agreement's third and final phase,
which deals with dismantlement of nuclear facilities.
In the dismantlement phase, the North is to get significant economic aid and
diplomatic recognition by Washington and Tokyo.
Critics say Pyongyang is awaiting a possibly better deal from the Barack Obama
administration.
Apart from North Korea, the five other parties insist that the sampling should be
part of the disablement of the North's nuclear facilities, the second phase of
the deal, under which Pyongyang is supposed to get 1 million tons of heavy fuel
oil.
Rice Sunday defended the six-party talks, which date back to 2003, as the only
route to North Korea's denuclearization.
The talks succeeded, she said, in shutting down the North's main nuclear reactor,
blowing up its cooling tower and having the North present its nuclear list.
"I think more will be achieved, but it's really only going to be achieved in the
context of the six parties, because if you don't have China and South Korea and
Russia and Japan at the table, too, then the North can play the game that they
used to play of getting benefits from other parts of the international community
and refusing to carry forward on its obligations," she said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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