Posted on 06/19/2005 7:16:39 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
37 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - North Korean officials "love to make excuses" for their continued absence at six-party talks aimed at ending the Stalinist state's nuclear standoff, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
Rice added that the United States was ready to listen to North Korea when it sets a date for returning to the talks, which also include South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
"The North Koreans love to make excuses for why they can't come to the six-party talks," she told Fox News Sunday when asked if it was time for Washington to "cool the rhetoric" with the North Korean regime, which Rice has called one of six "outposts of tyranny" in the world.
"The reason they don't want to come to the six-party talks is they don't like facing China and Russia and Japan and South Korea and the United States telling them in a concerted fashion that it's time to get rid of their weapons, their nuclear weapons," Rice said from Jerusalem during her first major Middle East trip as chief US diplomat.
"This doesn't have to do with what somebody's called or whether somebody states facts about the North Korean regime," she said.
"This is because the North Koreans want to avoid the inevitable confrontation, in a sense, with those who do not believe that the North Koreans can have nuclear weapons and that you can have a secure and peaceful Korean Peninsula."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, in talks with a senior South Korean official, said Friday that Pyongyang could return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks as early as July should the Washington "acknowledge and respect" the North as a dialogue partner.
North Korea has demanded that what it calls a US "hostile" policy be dropped before reviving the talks, which have been stalled for a year.
Asked if she stood by her "tyranny" comment, Rice said: "I think the nature of the North Korean regime is self-evident."
"The point is that the North Koreans have been told by their neighbors and by the international community that the only way that they gain the respect that they say that they want, the only way that they gain some help with their terrible economic situation is to make a strategic choice to give up their nuclear weapons and come back to the six-party talks," she said.
"And when they're ready to set the date, we're ready to listen," Rice added.
North Korea became the first country to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in January 2003, three months after Washington accused Pyongyang of running a clandestine nuclear weapons programme based on enriched uranium. In December 2002, the Stalinist state kicked out international monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The six-party talks hosted by China were aimed at weaning North Korea away from nuclear arms under an aid-for-disarmament proposal led by the United States.
North Korea has rejected the plan and refused to attend the fourth round of the talks in September 2004, citing what it called hostile US policy.
Ping!
I think Condi Rice just officially called Kim Jong 11 a loser not bother her anymore LOL!
That should hurt "divine" Chia Fruit.
I see what Condi make her hand gestures maybe she find out that how "small" Kim is really is LOLOL! from archives intellgence then Secretary of State Maddy not Too Bright
They are backing away from the talks again and blaming the US?
Gee, didn't see that coming.
How long does this "smoke and mirror" routine go on? They have no intention of actually stopping their nuclear ambitions and these "talks" are just stall tactics until they are far enough along that they can blackmail the world.
They will not dismantle their nuke program as long as Bush is president.
If for example a naive appeaser like Kerry or Clinton can make it in there in 3.5 years from now (January 2009), then DPRK will hold out that long if they have to, starving another 1 million people if need be--and still building up forces and capabilities through their other sources of income.
The cancer has grown very extensively.
Hence, while South Korea appeases, WE only bark and threaten and maneuver, but we know we cannot attack without horrendous implications for US civilian and military in South Korea, not to mention downtown Tokyo or US bases in Japan (Nodong, scuds, bombings on the ground by terrorists in country, suitcase nukes, chems, bios, you name it).
I am very suprise nobody has post Chia Pet photo from Team America YET
Obviously, I only know from what I read here, and other places, which always offer conflicting reports. One day they are close ... the next day it'll take years, they have nukes ... they don't have nukes, they have about 20 bombs ... they have no bombs, they are gonna test ... they are years from testing.
I have no idea what the truth is.
I'm not trying to be a troll, but how can countries that belong to the nuclear club compell other countries not to aquire nukes?
It is a matter of what kind of regime has nukes.
I would like to know what the American Left proposes for action on this matter...thus far, they have criticized the Bush Administration without offering any solutions to the problem...they fact that they are not offering solutions means that ytthey either do not have solutions, or that they would prefer to keep them secret, which can only mean they would like to see Bush fail.
Their approach
Before they declare they have nukes:==>
They don't have one. Just negotiate with them with a lot of goodies before they have real ones.
After their declaration:==>
They have one. Negotiate with them with a lot of goodies before they have more and nuke us. If they refuse, accept them as nuclear power and get along with them nicely, again give them a lot of goodies.
The result is always the same.
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