Rice urges China to use influence on North Korea
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice urged China on Tuesday to use its influence to press NorthKorea to make a full declaration of its nuclear programmes sothat a disarmament deal can move forward.
North Korea has promised to abandon all nuclear weaponsprogrammes in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentivesunder an agreement between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russiaand the United States reached in Beijing in 2005.
However, the deal has been stymied by Pyongyang's failureto meet an end-2007 deadline to disclose its nuclearprogrammes.
"I'm expecting from China what I am expecting from others-- that we will use all influence possible with the NorthKoreans to convey to them it's time to move forward," Rice toldreporters.
"We are (on) the cusp of something very special here," shesaid, citing North Korea's decision to initially shut down theYongbyon reactor at the heart of its atomic programme. "Nowit's time to move on."
A senior U.S. official said Rice hoped her Asian trip wouldact as "a real catalyst to get over this bar of a gooddeclaration" and she particularly wanted help from China, NorthKorea's major trading partner and traditional Communist ally.
"We continue to believe that if anyone is capable ofconvincing the North that this kind of transparency is the onlyway forward, it's the Chinese," said the official, who spokeanonymously because of the sensitivity of the diplomacy.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Beijing favouredintensified diplomacy to overcome the latest setback in thelong-running nuclear negotiations.
"The Chinese side hopes that the parties will treasure theresults we have already produced, which have not come easily,and bear in mind the bigger picture and ... increase thedialogue and consultations among the parties...," Yang toldreporters.
According to U.S. officials and analysts, the stickingpoint has been Pyongyang's reluctance to discuss any nucleartechnology it may have transferred to other nations, notablySyria, as well as its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment.
The United States has questions about any possible NorthKorean role in a suspected Syrian covert nuclear site that wasbombed by Israel in September. Syria has denied having anuclear programme but the case remains murky.
RIGHTS DIALOGUE
In a concession possibly aimed defusing a barrage ofinternational criticism surround China's hosting of the 2008Olympics in August, Yang said China was willing to resume ahuman rights dialogue with the United States.
China broke off the dialogue in 2004 after Washington urgeda U.N. watchdog to condemn what it called China's backslidingon rights.
Rice was due to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao andPremier Wen Jiabao following her meeting with Yang, for talksthat are likely also to touch on efforts to get a third U.N.Security Council resolution passed imposing sanctions on Iranfor its nuclear programme.
Rice, who attended South Korean President Lee Myung-bak'sinauguration in Seoul on Monday, arrived in Beijing on Tuesdayand flies to Tokyo on Wednesday.
She has no plans to visit Pyongyang, where the New YorkPhilharmonic orchestra will play a concert featuring the worksof Antonin Dvorak and George Gershwin on Tuesday.
Rice also plans to discuss how the six nations that reachedthe agreement on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions mightmonitor it, including tracking whether North Korea proliferatesnuclear technology in the future.
(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck in Beijing; Editingby Nick Macfie/Sugita Katyal)