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SINGAPORE: The United States and China sent mixed signals over what they expect from a high-level meeting here Wednesday with North Korea about Pyongyang's efforts to verify its nuclear disarmament.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice consulted in Singapore with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi before they meet their North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun at full six-nation talks later in the day.
It will be Rice's first meeting with Pak.
Neither Rice nor Yang mentioned publicly North Korea at their meeting here, but the top Chinese diplomat set a more upbeat tone for the talks than his US counterpart.
Yang, whose country chairs the negotiations, made no comment Wednesday but told reporters Tuesday "I think this will be very significant for advancing the spirit of the six-party talks."
Rice talked generalities on Wednesday.
"I'm looking forward to my bilateral with the Chinese foreign minister. We have a lot of issues. The US-Chinese relationship is a very big relationship," Rice told reporters as she greeted Yang in a luxury hotel.
However, she has played down expectations for the meeting involving the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
By the time the full meeting takes place, Rice will have met separately with the foreign ministers of all those countries - except Pak - on the sidelines of the 27-nation ASEAN Regional Forum security talks starting Thursday.
The meeting will not be "historic, monumental or even consequential" but rather fall into the "consultation category," Rice told reporters on the way here from Washington.
Rice's predecessor Colin Powell met North Korea's foreign minister in Indonesia in 2004 - but that was before a landmark deal last year paved the way for the disablement of most of North Korea's plutonium plants.
Rice expects the meeting to send a "very strong message" to North Korea to live up to its obligations and complete the arrangements for verifying its disarmament.
The talks over verification began after North Korea handed over a partial declaration or accounting of its nuclear programmes at the end of June, breaking a months-long deadlock.
On July 12, Pyongyang agreed to completely disable its main weapons grade plutonium-producing facilities by the end of October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify that all necessary steps had been taken.
In return for the de-activation of the nuclear facilities, the other five nations guaranteed delivery of all heavy fuel oil promised in exchange by the end of the same month.
The sides have agreed in principle to a verification mechanism that would include experts from the six nations visiting facilities, reviewing documents and interviewing technical personnel.
The United States hopes the protocol will be finalised by the week of August 10 so the months-long process of verification can begin.
Rice earlier this week said the protocol must also address proliferation as well as the question of highly enriched uranium.
The North Korea declaration acknowledged US concerns but did not address accusations that Pyongyang supplied Syria with the know-how to build a nuclear reactor on a site bombed by Israel last year.
It also acknowledged US suspicions about a uranium enrichment programme.
US officials say the talks here will give Rice a chance to gauge how much work North Korea has made toward verification as well as discuss the third and final phase of disarmament, which is to include the handover of any weaponry.
In return, North Korea would receive wide-ranging energy aid.
Japanese officials said Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura hoped China would "show leadership" during the six-way talks.
"As yet there are no prospects for the beginning of the verification," they quoted him as telling Yang in a bilateral meeting.
A diplomat close to the six-party talks said "it's just a symbolic meeting" with "very little expected," all but ruling out agreement on the verification protocol.
- AFP/yb
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