Rice sees more contacts before six-party talks

Ramstein Air Base (Germany), Nov 15: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said more work was needed before six-party talks resume on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, suggesting a quick resumption of the talks is unlikely.

''There will probably be more visits back and forth to try and prepare for the six-party talks because we need to take our time this time and make sure that when we go to the table at the six party talks, there is a reasonable chance for a successful outcome,'' Rice told reporters yesterday as she flew to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi.

Her plane stopped at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for a routine refuelling.

After boycotting the talks for nearly a year and conducting a nuclear test in October, North Korea has agreed to resume the six-party discussions, which include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

US officials hope the next round will happen by the end of the year but no date has been fixed.

The talks produced an agreement in September 2005 for North Korea to give up its nuclear program in exchange for economic, energy and diplomatic incentives from the others.

''We have tended to go to the talks and then try and let an outcome come from within the discussion (from) the bottom up,'' Rice said. ''Now they did a very fine job of that in September (2005), when they got the six-party agreement, but I think we are past the point that that model is going to work.'' ''I am a veteran of arms control negotiations. It is not at all unusual that you have a lot of preparatory work in advance of any round of getting the actual negotiators together -- and that's what's going on now,'' she added.

Rice did not say what diplomats may travel ahead of the next round of talks. US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and Under Secretary of State Bob Joseph recently visited Asia to meet members of the six-party talks other than North Korea.

US envoy Christopher Hill said earlier that the six-party talks were likely to resume in early December.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Hanoi, he said: ''I think we will try to use the next few weeks to be very busy and maybe begin the talks sometime in early December, probably.'' North Korea nuclear ambitions will be a major topic of discussion on the sidelines of the APEC summit, which will gather top officials from its 21 members.

Rice is scheduled to have bilateral talks with the foreign ministers of China, Japan, South Korea and Russia while in Hanoi.

However, she said she saw no reason for any collective meeting about North Korea on the sidelines of the APEC meeting.

Reuters

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