Rice urges NKorea to give up all nuclear weapons despite 'attachment'

AFP
Saturday, June 28, 2008

The United States pressed North Korea Saturday to follow up on a breakthrough by abandoning its full atomic weapons programme -- one where Washington sees signs of "emotional attachment" from Pyongyang.

"At the end of this (process), we have to have the abandonment of all programmes, weapons and materials," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after talks in Seoul with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan.

Rice was visiting South Korea before travelling on to China on Sunday as part of six-nation talks now focused on verifying a North Korean nuclear inventory submitted Thursday and on dismantling the full programme.

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A day after delivering the long-awaited nuclear inventory or declaration, the North on Friday blew up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor in a televised event to affirm its commitment to denuclearisation.

US envoy Sung Kim said that, while attending the event, he saw signs of an "emotional attachment" to the Yongbyon plant among engineers working there, including plant director Ri Yong-ho.

When asked if the North Koreans were so wedded to the programme that they might not give all of it up, Kim replied that the disarmament process was set up in phases to "test their commitment" each step of the way.

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