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US urges North Korea to set talks date
The Bush administration urged North Korea on Thursday to quickly set a date for resuming six-party nuclear talks amid an intensifying diplomatic push that is expected to include another trip to Asia by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. U.S. officials said Rice was likely to visit Japan next month and is considering other stops, including South Korea and China, to boost chances of success for another round of negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs. It would be her second Asia trip in three months.
North Korea and South Korea ended a high-level meeting on Thursday without agreement on resuming the talks, which also include China, Russia and Japan. Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, the new top U.S. non-proliferation official, told reporters "my sense is the North Koreans are going to come back" but the question remains "what do they do when they do come back to the table." He renewed the U.S. call for China to exert more pressure on Pyongyang and said failure to do so could have "significant consequences" for Sino-American relations. U.S. officials and experts are looking to an academic conference in New York on June 30 and July 1 as the next likely point of U.S.-North Korea contact. The administration has approved a visit by Ri Gun, a senior North Korean diplomat, to attend the conference, organized by Professor Donald Zagoria of Hunter College. The State Department said there has been no formal decision to send an administration official, but experts expect Ambassador Joseph DeTrani, U.S. envoy to the six-party talks, to attend and meet privately with Ri. "It's a positive sign that they gave him a visa. It's a positive sign that Ri's coming. He wouldn't be coming if he had nothing to discuss," one government expert told Reuters. CRITICAL PERIOD U.S. experts view June and July as a critical period for efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis peacefully. Pyongyang has boycotted talks for a year and during that time increased its nuclear capability from one or two weapons to eight or more, according to U.S. intelligence. The administration, under increasing attack for a failed North Korea policy and facing another nuclear problem with Iran, is losing patience. Officials and experts say if Pyongyang does not return to the talks, if talks are held and break down, or if the North tests a nuclear weapon, Washington would abandon diplomacy for a much tougher approach. This could mean bringing Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council for action, and a U.S. decision to treat the North as a criminal state, including a crackdown on illicit trafficking in weapons, narcotics and counterfeit currency, they say. The White House is preparing an executive order that would bring new pressure on North Korea, Iran and Syria by pursuing the assets of companies believed to be aiding their weapons or nuclear programs, U.S. officials said. Pyongyang could react negatively to this but one U.S. official said the North is continuing its nuclear activities and "you can't do nothing in the face of that."
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