Rice urges China to use influence on North Korea
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice urged China on Tuesday to press North Korea to discloseits nuclear programmes so that a stalled disarmament deal canmove 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.
The deal has been stymied by Pyongyang's failure to meet anend-2007 deadline to make a "complete and correct" declarationof all its nuclear programmes.
"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 after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
In addition to North Korea, Rice and Yang discussed effortsto impose new U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclearprogramme, stopping the violence in Sudan's Darfur region andU.S. concerns about human rights in China and Taiwan.
Rice listed U.S. economic concerns, including the value ofChina's currency and its protection of intellectual property.Yang sought to reassure consumers about Chinese exports after astring of U.S. recalls, saying: "Chinese food is safe."
Finding a way to convince North Korea, which conducted anuclear test in October 2006, to give up its atomic ambitionsis the central subject of Rice's four-day visit to South Korea,China and Japan.
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.
"NOT ONLY SAFE, BUT DELICIOUS"
Yang said Beijing favoured intensified diplomacy toovercome the latest setback in the long-running nuclearnegotiations and he stressed the challenge of securingagreements with North Korea.
"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 said at ajoint news conference with Rice.
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.
In a concession possibly aimed at 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 to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and PremierWen Jiabao before flying to Tokyo on Wednesday. She began hervisit to the region in Seoul, where she attended Monday'sinauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
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.
During their news conference, Yang and Rice bantered aboutthe U.S. presidential election and the Chinese foreign ministerteasingly prompted Rice to tell him who would win.
"I am not going to," Rice replied with a smile. "But noware you going to give me Chinese food?"
"I promise it is not only safe but delicious," Yang repliedin English.
(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck in Beijing; Editingby Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)