Fresh 6-party talks to be held in China next month: Rice

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details, background throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- A fresh round of six-party talks will be held in
China on Dec. 8 to discuss North Korea's nuclear disarmament, U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

"December 8th, they're scheduled for in China," Rice told reporters aboard an
airplane on her way back home from an annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum in Lima, Peru, according to a transcript released by the State Department.
"And we expect that there, there will be a push to finalize the verification
protocol," she said.
Rice was talking about North Korea's recent rejection of the U.S. claim that
Pyongyang agreed to allow access to its nuclear facilities and sampling for
scientific and forensic verification of its declared nuclear programs.
The rejection was seen by skeptics as intent by the North to shun any further
negotiations with the outgoing Bush administration.
Hardliners denounce Bush for accepting the incomplete agreement, which allows
access to the North's undeclared nuclear sites by international inspectors only
by "mutual consent."
The talks have been stalled for months over how to verify North Korea's nuclear
facilities as presented by the reclusive country in June as part of a nuclear
deal signed by the six parties in the multilateral talks.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill visited the North Korean capital in
early October to settle on a verification regime.
The agreement ended a months-long stalemate over how to verify the North's
nuclear programs as Washington subsequently lifted the North from its terrorism
blacklist and the North resumed disabling its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon,
north of its capital, Pyongyang.
"It's very important that that verification protocol reflect the discussions that
Chris Hill had with his North Korean counterparts when he was in Pyongyang, a set
of assurances that were given," Rice said, apparently bearing in mind the North's
rejection.
She, however, advised patience. "The North Koreans took 30 years to get a nuclear
weapons program; I think it might take more than a couple to unravel it."
The annoncement on the six-party talks resumption comes just one day after South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, George W.
Bush, and Taro Aso agreed Saturday in a three-way meeting that they concurred to
hold the next round of the six-party talks in early next month.
The meeting was held in Lima, Peru, on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security
Council, told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One en route to Lima, "So we are
very much hoping that by the time we leave APEC, we will have that meeting -- the
timing of that meeting in place."
Wilder hoped "that meeting can really get us to the end of what we call the
second phase of the six-party process, and begin to start thinking about the
third phase."
Under the second phase of the multilateral nuclear deal signed by the two Koreas,
the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, the North is supposed to disable its nuclear
facilities in return for one million tons of heavy fuel oil.
The third and final phase calls for the North's dismantlement of its nuclear
facilities and programs in exchange for a massive economic aid and diplomatic
recognition.
The U.S. special envoy on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, Sung Kim, will fly
to South Korea Monday to discuss a verification regime for the North's nuclear
facilities.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has evaluated Bush's engagement with the North
for the past couple of years, saying that it proves engagement produces results.
Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's
Foreign Ministry, met with Frank Jannuzi, a key foreign policy adviser to Obama,
in New York in early this month, saying "We are ready to respond to any U.S.
administration whatever its North Korea policy may be. We've handled many U.S.
administrations, some seeking dialogue with us and others trying to isolate and
oppress us."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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