Rice meets Chinese, North Korea agrees to talks

By Carol Giacomo

BEIJING (Reuters) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
meets senior Chinese officials on Sunday after North Korea
agreed to return to stalled six-party talks on its nuclear
weapons program after a break of more than a year.

Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing are to make a
joint statement on the talks after a meeting on Sunday.

A U.S. official said North Korea, once branded by
Washington as part of an “axis of evil” along with Iran and
pre-war Iraq, had promised it would attend with the goal of
making progress at the talks — which involve the two Koreas,
China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The U.S. official said Pyongyang was promised no new U.S.
inducements to return to the bargaining table but it appeared
both sides had softened or dropped some earlier demands.

On Sunday, Rice is also expected to meet Chinese President
Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and State Councillor Tang
Jiaxuan, Xinhua news agency said.

In Washington, the White House said it welcomed North
Korea’s agreement to return to the discussions.

“We are pleased that North Korea is coming back to the
talks with a commitment to a denuclearised peninsula,” said
spokeswoman Dana Perino. “We look forward to making progress in
the six-party talks toward that goal.”

The KCNA news agency said Pyongyang decided to reopen the
talks after North Korea’s vice-minister of foreign affairs, Kim
Kye-gwan, met U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian
Affairs Christopher Hill in Beijing on Saturday.

“Both sides agreed to open the fourth round of the
six-party talks in the week which begins on July 25, 2005,”
KCNA said.

The United States confirmed the timing and said Pyongyang
promised it would attend with the goal of making progress.
Three previous rounds have been inconclusive.

Reviving the talks has become more urgent because of
concerns Pyongyang has expanded its nuclear capabilities to
eight or more weapons, up from one or two weapons when
President Bush came to office.

Since the last round of talks in Beijing in June 2004,
Pyongyang had demanded that any new round have an expanded
focus on broader disarmament issues, not just the North’s
nuclear programs.

But the U.S. official said Pyongyang had reaffirmed the
narrower focus, adding: “That’s encouraging.”

He acknowledged that whether the North is really prepared
to negotiate away its nuclear weapons remained a big question.

North Korea in June signaled it would return to the talks
this month if Washington showed respect, including apologising
for Rice describing the North as an “outpost of tyranny.”

The United States dismissed that as a stalling tactic but
had toned down its rhetoric and reiterated that it recognized
the North as a sovereign state and had no intention to invade.