US, Japan expect N.Korea to move on nuclear pact

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) The United States and Japan expect North Korea to immediately meet its initial obligations under a six-nation disarmament pact, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said two weeks after the North missed a deadline for shutting down its main nuclear reactor.

''We agreed that we must continue to expect North Korea to immediately fulfill its initial action agreements,'' Rice said.

''We don't have endless patience. We do recognize that North Korea has continued to publicly affirm its obligation under the February 13 agreement and to affirm its intention to carry through.

We expect them to do so,'' she told reporters.

Rice's talks with her Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma followed a warning issued by the two countries' leaders last week that North Korea could face tougher steps such as sanctions if it did not comply.

US President George W Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday expressed concern that North Korea missed an April 14 deadline to start shutting its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the Soviet-era source of plutonium for its bombs.

The deadline was required by a deal North Korea reached on February 13 with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States under which Pyongyang would get energy and economic aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament.

REUTERS SY KN2330