Posted March. 20, 2005 22:07,
On March 20, South Korea and the United States urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks, reconfirming their common stance that bilateral dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea could take place on the condition that the stalled six-party nuclear negotiations would resume.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in Korea on Saturday, clarified her attitude on this at serial meetings with President Roh Moo-hyun, National Assembly committee chair of National Security Council (NSC) and Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon.
Rice reiterated at the news conference with Ban at Bans ministry after the meetings that we have no intention of attacking North Korea, adding, North Korea should make a strategic choice to ensure its security.
In addition, Rice emphasized, No one denies that North Korea is a sovereign state. She mentioned that North Korea is a sovereign state, for the first time as a high official in the second administration of President George W. Bush in a speech at Sophia University in Japan.
Ban expressed his opinion of her statement of a sovereign state, saying, Rices language is helpful in encouraging North Korea to resume the six-party talks. He analyzed her words, saying, As the North demanded her to retract her phrase, outpost of tyranny, she could not mention a response directly. She therefore mentioned it in a roundabout way to develop an atmosphere for talks.
Ban also said, Two nations, Korea and the U.S., reconfirmed their common objective to solve North Korean nuclear issue through six-party talks in a peaceful and diplomatic way, adding, Various types of talks are possible in the six-way framework, including bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea.