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Rice warns North Korea on new nuclear demands
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-25 09:17
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Monday that North Korea should
not bring any new demands to international disarmament talks and said the
country's claim to a nuclear power reactor "remains an abstraction."
North Korea agreed last month to abandon its nuclear weapons program and
dismantle weapons, but details of the deal are still unclear. North Korea
appeared to back away from some pledges in the days after the deal was signed.
Police push protestors off the road as U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives for a meeting at Prime
Minister Paul Martin's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa,
Monday, Oct. 24, 2005 in Canada. [AP] | The next talks, which involve China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea,
Russia and the United States, are scheduled for November, but no date has been
set.
"I assume they are going to come back. If they come back it's without
preconditions, because that's the only basis on which the talks will be
restarted," Rice told reporters en route to a brief diplomatic visit to Canada.
One sticking point is Pyongyang's demand that in exchange for giving up its
nuclear program it is provided with a light-water nuclear reactor to meet its
dire energy needs. Light-water reactors are believed to be less easily diverted
for weapons use.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin (L) waves
with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from the doorway of his
official residence in Ottawa October 24, 2005. Rice is in Ottawa for a
two-day official visit. [Reuters] | The United States, however, says this issue should be tackled only after
Pyongyang has verifiably dismantled its weapons efforts.
"The light water reactor issue continues to be an abstraction," Rice said.
Last week, former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson said North Korea is
committed to unconditionally resuming talks on its atomic weapons program and
returning to the international nuclear nonproliferation pact.
Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, was in Pyongyang this week at the
invitation of the government, said the North had also pledged to allow outside
oversight of its disarmament.
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