US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the eve of an Asia tour, pressed on Saturday for North Korea to disclose not only
its nuclear weapons
programmes but also its alleged proliferation activities.
Rice said she would meet officials from South Korea, China and Japan to boost North Korea’s disarmament but appeared to rule out any breakthrough when she said it would not be useful for her to talk to North Korean officials.
The countries involved in the issue have the right set of incentives and disincentives to address not just denuclearisation, which obviously is extremely important, but also proliferation, Rice said.
It was not clear if Rice speaking to reporters before visiting Seoul on Monday and then Beijing and Tokyo in the following days was referring to exports of just conventional weapons or also nuclear-related materiel.
The United States has accused North Korea of being a leading global proliferator of missiles, but the cash-strapped country has refused to stop the exports, a major source of hard currency earnings.
In July 2006, it test-fired seven missiles, including the long-range Taepodong-2, which in theory could reach the US west coast.
Washington also demands North Korea clear up suspicions of possible nuclear technology transfer to Syria. Media reports have said an Israeli air strike in Syria last September may have targeted a joint nuclear project.
North Korea, which staged its first nuclear test in October 2006, is disabling its nuclear plants under an agreement arising from negotiations with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
A landmark deal reached on February 13, 2007 offers the North a million tonnes of fuel oil, normalised ties with the United States and Japan and a formal peace treaty, if it scraps all nuclear programmes and material.
In the current phase, the North agreed to disable its atomic plants and fully declare all nuclear programmes by the end of last year. But it missed the deadline amid a dispute with the United States over the declaration.
We need a complete declaration from the North Koreans about both their proliferation activities, their current plutonium
programme, which they are in the process of disabling, but also the HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) programme that they need to make clear what has happened there, Rice said.
Washington points to Pyongyang’s purchase of thousands of aluminium tubes as evidence of a possible secret enrichment programme.
When asked if she would meet with a North Korean delegate during her stop in Beijing, she replied: I don’t see any purpose at this point in meeting with North Koreans.