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Thursday, June 28, 2007

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WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she hoped for a swift shutdown of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs now that U.N. inspectors are in the country.

"We hope for now rapid progress given the beginning, we believe, of the North Korean efforts to meet their initial action obligations," Rice said before meeting South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon at the State Department.

Song was in Washington as a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is visiting North Korea. He said his country as well saw hope for quick movement now that a financial dispute that had stalled efforts was resolved.

"We will move ahead, now that this (banking) issue is behind us," he said, sitting next to Rice at the State Department. "We will move ahead in shutting down the North Korean nuclear program and disabling facilities and make a new regional security and peace mechanism."

Song declined to answer questions about the meeting as he left the State Department, telling reporters only that it was a productive session.

Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Song briefed Rice about South Korean preparations to ship heavy fuel oil to the North - part of the February nuclear agreement settled by the Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

The next step in the disarmament accord, where the North must declare all its nuclear programs, will be where negotiators start to "blaze some new trails," McCormack said. He predicted tough negotiations ahead.

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The banking dispute was settled this week after months of delay, and North Korea announced Monday that it would move forward with the disarmament deal. U.S. officials have said they expect the six-party talks to resume next month.

The visit by U.N. inspectors is the first International Atomic Energy Agency trip to the Yongbyon nuclear facility since its monitors were expelled from the country in late 2002.

North Korea boosted the urgency in the international standoff over its nuclear program in October when it conducted its first atomic test explosion. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution saying that Pyongyang must, among other things, abide by a missile-test moratorium.

Despite that, North Korea conducted short-range missiles tests this week, too, prompting sharp condemnation from the Bush White House and other countries.

"We expect North Korea to refrain from conducting further provocative ballistic missile launches, activity that is destabilizing to the security of northeast Asia," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said on Wednesday.

© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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