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WASHINGTON : Shrugging off North Korea's missile launches, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday she expected "rapid" progress in international efforts to end the hardline communist state's nuclear weapons drive.
Speaking before talks with her South Korean counterpart Song Min-Soon, she said her confidence stemmed from Pyongyang's decision to implement what is called "initial action" under the six-party talks to disband its nuclear arms arsenal.
As part of the action, North Korea has allowed for the first time in nearly five years the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit the Yongbyon atomic reactor, a key source for potentially bomb-making material.
"We will obviously have a chance to talk about the six party talks, where we hope for now rapid progress given the beginning, we believe, of the North Koreans' efforts to meet their initial action obligations," Rice told reporters with Song by her side at her State Department office.
A team of UN inspectors travelled on Thursday to the Yongbyon reactor to assess the size of the task they will face in monitoring its shutdown under a February 13 nuclear disarmament deal clinched at the six-party talks among the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.
Under that deal, the communist country vowed to shut down the five-megawatt Yongbyon site under UN supervision in exchange for badly-needed energy and diplomatic concessions.
Rice did not comment on the missile launches by North Korea on Wednesday that the White House said was "deeply" troubling coming during a "delicate time" in the six-party talks.
The launches were "a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits North Korea from engaging in all ballistic missile activities," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe had said.
But Rice's spokesman Sean McCormack played down the concerns on Thursday.
"It would be better if they didn't do this," he said, but quickly added that they were "tactical missile tests" that "technically don't break the moratorium" and conducted within North Korean 'territory.'"
On the White House's contention that the missile launches contravened a UN Security Council resolution, McCormack said, "I think there is a question about that ... It is an open question."
South Korean minister Song said North Korea "has ample reason and merit to give up its nuclear programme" and that all the other nations in the six-party process also agreed that the reclusive nation "should make a strategic decision" to end its atomic activities.
The February nuclear disarmament deal's implementation was delayed by a dispute over the return to North Korea of allegedly tainted funds frozen in a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia (BDA).
Pyongyang said on Monday it had finally received the cash after Washington lifted a freeze on the assets.
"Now that the BDA issue is behind us, we will move ahead in shutting down North Korea's nuclear program and disabling the facilities" and strive to set up a new Northeast Asian security and peace mechanism, Song said.
The United States hoped that by the end of 2007, the Yongboun facility would be shut down and "disabled" and a peace mechanism launched for resolving the decades-old Korean conflict.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty. - AFP/de
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