Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pushing North Korea hard to accept terms to verify the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program after breaking a four-year hiatus in Cabinet-level talks with the communist state. Less than 24 hours after meeting North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun for the first time, Rice said Thursday that "nobody is going to trust" Pyongyang unless it agrees quickly to a U.S.-proposed "verification protocol" to ensure that it is actually abandoning atomic arms. "I don't think the North Koreans left with any illusions about the fact that the ball is in their court and that everybody believes they have got to respond and respond positively on verification," she told reporters. Rice said an accounting of nuclear activities that North Korea had submitted last month, including the amount of...
[read full story]
Your Web Site
