The upcoming six-party talks on North Korean disarmament will fail unless Pyongyang makes a commitment to abandon its nuclear weapons, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.
"What we really need is a strategic decision on the part of the North that they are indeed ready to give up their nuclear weapons program," Rice told reporters after the meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo.
"Without that, these talks cannot be successful," she said.
She also said Washington strongly supports Japan's efforts to resolve the cases of Japanese kidnapped decades ago by North Korean agents. The North has released five of the victims, but Japan believes other victims may still remain.
"We agreed that there must be an actual progress in the next round of talks, and we expect North Korea's serious and constructive handling," Machimura said. "We also confirmed the importance of close cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea on the issue."
Rice also expressed no objections to a South Korean donation of 453,592 tonnes tons of rice to the North, saying the gesture will not undercut the US negotiating position heading into the six-party talks.
Rice said South Korea was responding to "miserable conditions" in North Korea and noted that the US itself in recent days offered 45,395 tonnes of food aid to Pyongyang.
Rice was also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later in the day before heading to South Korea.
Despite the call for concessions from the North, Rice pledged the US' commitment to the upcoming talks, which are scheduled to resume the week of July 25 in Beijing.
"We're ready to negotiate seriously. We are prepared to roll up our sleeves and do everything we can to make these talks a success," she said, adding that all of the partners in the talks -- China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the US -- were aiming toward the common goal of a nuclear-free North Korea.
Ahead of the talks, Japanese officials said Japan, South Korea and the US were trying to arrange three-way talks on North Korea before the broader meetings.
"We believe we should have Japan-US-South Korea talks as soon as possible, and we are currently arranging a date and a venue," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said. "We are hoping to have a meeting by the weekend."
North Korea announced over the weekend that it would end its yearlong boycott of the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programs.
Meanwhile, South Korea said yesterday that it offered energy aid to the North as an incentive to encourage it to return to nuclear disarmament talks.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Seoul would provide electricity to the North if it agrees to give up nuclear weapons at the revived six-nation arms talks. South Korean officials had previously refused to give details of the aid proposal, which apparently pushed the North to agree over the weekend to end its boycott of the nuclear negotiations.
Senior North Korean officials told a visiting columnist from The New York Times that one of two nuclear reactors the North resumed constructing this year -- which could potentially generate more weapons-grade plutonium -- could be completed this year or next.
"To defend our sovereignty and our system ... we cannot but increase our number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent force," Nicholas Kristof quoted Li Chan-bok, a North Korean army general, as saying.
If the US carries out a military strike to destroy the reactors, Li said the result would be "all-out war" and didn't rule out the use of nuclear weapons, Kristof wrote in a column yesterday.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS