By GEORGE GEDDA
Rice commented Friday en route to China
at the start of a four-nation East Asia swing that is
aimed primarily at finding ways to encourage North
Korea to end a yearlong boycott of
multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations.
"When it comes to making sure that over time we get a
non-nuclear Korean Peninsula,
that's just a very high priority for the Chinese," Rice told reporters
before a refueling stop in Alaska .
As the main source of food and energy assistance to North
Korea, China
has more leverage over its neighbor than other parties to the six-nation
negotiating process.
Rice declined to pass judgment on whether China
has been doing enough. "We want China
to do as much as it can," she said.
She added that she will ask the Chinese for an update on
recent discussions they have had with the North Koreans. She made clear that
she is not prepared to hand the Chinese a list of things they should do to
pressure the North. Rather, she said, "I'm going to ask them how to get
the talks resumed."
Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph said recently the Bush
administration believes "China
can do more to get them (the North Koreans) to eliminate
their nuclear weapons program."
Besides China,
Rice plans stops in Japan
and
South Korea, other members of the six-party process. She said her trip
is aimed at "taking stock" of the North Korean situation following a
series of diplomatic exchanges.
The Chinese government said Friday it will send a special
envoy to North Korea
next week after Rice visits Beijing.
A fourth stop for her will be the resort city of Phuket, Thailand,
where she will examine reconstruction efforts following last December's
devastating tsunami.
Even though North Korea
has declined to set a date for resumption of the discussions, Rice indicated
there was no sense of urgency and said she has no deadline for getting back to
the bargaining table.
Possibly as a confidence-building measure, she refrained
from negative rhetoric about communist North
Korea, reaffirming that the United
States has no plans to attack the country
and recognizes it as a sovereign state.
North Korea
reacted angrily to Rice's designation of it in January as an "outpost of
tyranny," with a senior official demanding a retraction.
Rice said she has no intention of sweetening a U.S.
proposal to provide energy and other assistance to North
Korea once the country makes a credible
commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
That offer was made at the last round of talks a year ago. North
Korea has yet to respond to the proposal.
7/10/05
Source: AP
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