SINGAPORE — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed North Korea to accept terms to verify the dismantling of its nuclear-weapons program as the countries held Cabinet-level talks Wednesday for the first time in four years.
Rice told Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun that his nation must move quickly to prove it has told the truth about atomic activities if it wants to improve ties with its neighbors and end its international isolation.
“We didn’t get into specific timetables, but the spirit was good because people believe we have made progress,” she told reporters after the meeting on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore.
“There is also a sense of urgency about moving forward and a sense that we can’t afford to have another hiatus,” Rice said of her talks with Pak and the foreign ministers of the other four nations involved in the effort — China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said Washington wants a verification plan in place about Aug. 10.
Meanwhile, rights activists say President Bush is turning his back on thousands of political prisoners if he lifts Kim Jong-Il’s regime from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Taking the isolated communist nation off the list would eliminate a source of leverage to pressure Kim to dismantle prison camps where as many as 200,000 men, women and children are starved and tortured, the activists say.
“I felt betrayed when I heard the move by the U.S. president, though I knew the list refers to international terrorist acts,” said Hiroshi Kato, director of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, a Tokyo group. “I don’t think the U.S. government knows enough about human-rights abuses and the gulags of North Korea.”
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
