Secretary of State Rice Cautions North Korea Against Deepening Its Isolation
During a February 10 interview with RTL TV of the Netherlands, Rice said U.S. officials have yet to examine a North Korean announcement that it has nuclear weapons and plans to pull out of the Six-Party Talks with South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States on a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula.
If North Korea makes good on its promise, it will only deepen its isolation, she said, "because everyone in the international community, and most especially North Korea's neighbors, has been very clear that there needs to be no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula in order to maintain stability in that region."
Rice reiterated President Bush's assurances that the United States has no hostile intent against North Korea, and that, if Pyongyang agrees to end its nuclear weapons programs, it could have multilateral security assurances.
The secretary, who is in Europe to bolster relations with U.S. allies, acknowledged the "difficult period" created by U.S. actions in Iraq, but said there is "a common desire for the spread of freedom and liberty and also a common desire for the spread of prosperity and peace." Cooperation never faltered on issues such as combating terrorism, nonproliferation, and law enforcement and intelligence sharing, she said.
Regarding Iraq, Rice said she was "very heartened" when talking to NATO leaders about their readiness to train Iraqi security forces. "Now that Iraq is writing its own political future, we look forward to training their security forces," she said.
On relations between the Israelis and Palestinians, Rice said Americans and Europeans are "clearly united in how we move forward in encouraging the parties, in helping the Palestinians to get to the point that they can fight terrorism effectively, in supporting the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza and the four settlements in the West Bank and then trying to get back on the Roadmap."
Regarding the nurturing of democracies, Rice pointed to the progress made by the government of Pakistan, which has worked to control extremists and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Saudi Arabia, she noted, has had its first municipal elections. "These are places," she said, "that are a part of a larger dialogue, now, a larger conversation, about the need for reform, the need of openness politically."
웹사이트: http://usembassy.state.gov/seoul
연락처
USKOREA-KR
