Rice hints at movement on N.Korea nuclear issue

JAPAN: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday she had useful talks with Chinese officials on how to end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and left a senior aide in Beijing to continue the discussions.

North Korea committed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programmes in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits under a 2005 multilateral deal.

But the accord between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States has become bogged down by Pyongyang’s failure to produce a declaration of its nuclear programmes by the end of last year.

Speaking after she arrived in Tokyo, her last stop on a four-day tour of Northeast Asia largely focused on North Korea, Rice said she and Chinese President Hu Jintao had a good discussion of the matter on Tuesday.

“Chris will continue those discussions and I think that’s a useful thing to do at this point,” she added, referring to Chris Hill, the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea.

Hill scrapped plans to accompany Rice to Tokyo and will spend one extra day in Beijing. He leaves on Thursday morning and is expected to make scheduled visits to Bangkok, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The State Department said he had no plans to meet North Korean officials in Beijing or to visit Pyongyang.

Rice was vague about how she hoped to revive the effort to denuclearise North Korea, which has shut down and begun to disable its atomic reactor at Yongbyon but balked at providing a declaration of all its nuclear programmes.

Tokyo, Wednesday, Reuters