U.S. hopes to formalize verification protocol in 6-way talks: State Dept.

(ATTN: UPDATES with Hill's remarks in paras 9-10)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States wants the next round of
six-party talks in early December to formalize the verification protocol on North
Korea's nuclear facilities, the State Department said Monday.
"We hope and would expect that the verification protocol would be formalized in a
six-party sense at the next heads of delegation meeting, which my boss announced
just the other day," spokesman Sean McCormack told a daily news briefing.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that "there will be a push to
finalize the verification protocol" during the upcoming multilateral nuclear
talks in Beijing on Dec. 8.
"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.
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.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill visited the North Korean capital in
early October to settle on a verification regime in a breakthrough after a
months-long stalemate over how to verify the North's nuclear programs.
Washington subsequently lifted the North from its terrorism blacklist and the
North resumed disabling its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon.
Hill, for his part, said in Lima on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum Sunday: "We also, of course, need to have a clear and, frankly,
something where there will be no misunderstandings about the verification
agreement," according to a transcript released by the State Department.
He said he will have a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese
counterparts "sometime soon and definitely before the six-party meeting" and
additional consultations with North Koreans and other participants in the nuclear
talks to discuss the verification issue.
McCormack insisted that the sampling is "part of the agreement, and what we're
going to work to is formalize this agreement."
"Regardless of which form that it may be in, it is an agreement. That doesn't
change it," he said. "So what we hope is going to happen at this next six-party
heads of delegation meeting is that this is agreed upon and put in a form that
all of the members of the six parties validate."
The North's 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."
Rice, however, advised patience, noting North Korea "took 30 years to get a
nuclear weapons program; I think it might take more than a couple to unravel it."
On North Korea's threat to cut off most border crossings with South Korea
effective Dec. 1 except for a minimal number of staff members for operation of a
joint industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong, McCormack urged the
North to benefit from contacts with the outside world.
"We've always encouraged direct discussions and direct interaction between the
North and South," he said. "The North can only benefit from greater contact with
the rest of the world, including South Korea."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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