SINGAPORE — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed North Korea today to accept terms to verify the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program, as the two countries held cabinet-level talks for the first time in four years.
Rice told Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun that his nation must move quickly to prove it has told the truth about its past atomic activities if it wants to improve ties with the United States and North Korea’s immediate neighbors and end its international isolation.
“We didn’t get into specific timetables, but the spirit was good because people believe we have made progress,” she told reporters after the meeting on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore.
“There is also a sense of urgency about moving forward and a sense that we can’t afford to have another hiatus,” Rice said of her talks with Pak and the foreign ministers of the other four nations involved in the effort — China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said Washington wants the verification plan put in place around Aug. 10. The actual process will take months to complete.
In a brief, one-on-one exchange, Rice reminded Pak of the importance the United States places on verification and also on North Korea resolving the issue of Japanese citizens it abducted in the 1980s, Hill told reporters after the 80-minute meeting.
Diplomats had expected Pak to present at least an initial response to the four-page proposed “verification protocol” that was given to North Korea this month after it delivered a declaration containing details of its nuclear program in June.
Rice said there had been a lot of discussion about the verification proposal, which calls for intrusive inspections, interviews with scientists and a role for the U.N. nuclear watchdog, but would not say if the North had moved beyond preliminary objections to some of elements.
The meeting “was actually very good,” she said. “It wasn’t a standoff with people just stating their positions … it was interactive.”
Yet just hours before the talks began, North Korea said it had met its commitments and said Washington must completely abandon its “hostile policies” toward the regime if the denuclearization process is to succeed.
Still, the spokesman for the North Korean delegation, Ri Tong Il, told reporters that Pyongyang hoped the meeting would build momentum toward ending the declaration and verification stage and move toward a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
After the talks, Ri said Pak had told his fellow foreign ministers that North Korea is willing “to implement its own obligations,” including verification, “closely following the implementation by other parties on the principle of action-for-action.”
Rice said there had been “no surprises” at the gathering and that all six parties had reaffirmed their commitment to the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.
“I think this is quite significant,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. “It shows the six parties have the political will to move forward with the … process.”
Yang said the group had made “major headway” in obtaining verifiable accounting of North Korea’s nuclear program and others said they believed the meeting would boost the effort ahead of a formal ministerial meeting to be held at an as-yet-unscheduled date in Beijing.
“Although it was not an official meeting, I think it was a good opportunity to show that the six-party process is maturing,” said South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.
Should the verification and dismantlement proceed apace, the United States and its partners in the talks have promised to complete deliveries of fuel oil and other economic aid.
today’s meeting marked the first time since 2004 that top diplomats from the United States and North Korea have met face-to-face.
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Associated Presss Jae-Soon Chang and Christopher Bodeen contributed to this report.
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