| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
WASHINGTON : US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed regret that North Korea has not fulfilled its promise to begin dismantling its nuclear weapons program, the White House said Monday.
North Korea is reluctant to shut down its key Yongbyon reactor, as pledged in a February 13 multinational agreement, until it receives US$25 million of its funds frozen in a Macau bank following a US blacklisting.
Bush and Abe discussed over the telephone the North Korean situation and "agreed that it's regrettable that North Korea has yet to fulfil its commitments under the February 13th agreement," White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters.
Abe, who made the call, had warned last week that Japan "won't stay patient forever" and "if North Korea does not carry out what it had promised, we will have to think about a variety of options."
Japan has already imposed sweeping sanctions against North Korea including a ban on all imports.
North Korea has still not received its funds from the Macau bank even though Washington said in March that the money - reportedly proceeds from Pyongyang's money laundering and counterfeiting activities - had been unfrozen.
Foreign banks are reportedly unwilling to handle the suspicious cash for fear of sullying their own reputations.
Abe also briefed Bush on his recent visit to the Middle East, including to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.
Washington is rallying support from the Arab states for US efforts to stabilise war-torn Iraq.
The two leaders "agreed that it's indispensable that governments support (Iraqi) Prime Minister (Nuri al) Maliki and his government as they work on Iraqi reconstruction," Snow said.
They also agreed that Iran must give up its nuclear weapons ambitions and stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, he said.
Bush and Abe said that they looked forward to a meeting at the sidelines of the upcoming G8 summit in Germany.
Meanwhile, the top US envoy on the North Korean nuclear crisis Christopher Hill is to travel to Britain and Southeast Asia to discuss Asian security issues.
He is to participate at a conference on Asian security in London from May 19 to 21 and proceed to Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia "for discussions on bilateral and regional issues," said deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
In Manila, Hill, who is assistant US secretary of state, would also attend a senior officials' meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum on May 25.
Casey ruled out prospects of a meeting between Hill and his North Korean counterpart in London on the nuclear crisis.
"There is nothing on his agenda at this point for a meeting with the North Koreans," he said.
In January, Hill met his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Berlin in a surprise encounter that helped break a deadlock on the nuclear problem. - AFP/ch
|
