US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed her North Korean counterpart to move rapidly on new nuclear disarmament steps yesterday, but hailed the “good spirit” at unprecedented six-party talks.
Rice said she shook hands twice with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, whom she met for the first time as she and her negotiating partners gave him a “very tough message” for Pyongyang to meet its obligations.
The pair met in Singapore with their counterparts from China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
The US would like North Korea to agree to a US draft protocol setting out the arrangements for verifying the steps it has taken toward disarmament since a landmark agreement in February last year.
It hopes the protocol will be decided on early next month to allow for the start of verification in which experts would inspect North Korean plants, take soil samples, review documents and interview technical personnel.
“We didn’t get into specific timetables,” Rice told reporters afterward.
“Look, the spirit was good because the people believe we’ve made progress, but there is also a sense of urgency about moving on and a sense that we can’t afford another hiatus of several months,” she said.
Begun in 2003 before lapsing for three years, the six-country disarmament negotiations resumed after North Korea staged its first nuclear test in 2006.
The negotiations hit a deadlock at the end of last year when North Korea failed to meet a deadline to fully disable its weapons-grade plutonium plants and deliver a full account of its nuclear programs.
The deadlock was broken last month when North Korea handed over a partial account of its nuclear programs.
US President George W. Bush has begun the procedure to remove North Korea from a blacklist of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism as well as ease economic sanctions on North Korea, though most remain in place.
But North Korea said yesterday that Washington had not lived up to its side of the bargain.
Pak “emphasized the need for full implementation by the six parties [of] the respected obligations of each side” under previous agreements, North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Ri Tong-il said.
The principle was based on “action for action,” Pak said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS