US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice concluded on Wednesday her five-day visit to China, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. Except for Thailand, all the other three countries that Rice visited happened to be participants of the six-party talks which were presided over by China to solve nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula.

Rice's visit to Asia also coincided with an announcement by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) upon her arrival in Beijing, China, to end its 13-month boycott and to return to nuclear disarmament talks during the week of July 25. Looking back on Rice's rhetoric in the tour, it is not difficult to judge that the top US diplomat was trying to make a final preparation for the upcoming new round of six-party talks.

China, the first stop of Rice's Asian tour, is apparently the most important country that Rice visited. In addition to focusing on bilateral relations, Rice talked a lot in her meetings with the Chinese leaders and the mass media about nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula. She spoke highly of China's constructive efforts in the promotion of the resumption of the six-party talks, saying China has played a "very positive" role in the field.

Thanks to mediation by China and pressures from inside and outside home country, US President George W. Bush and his administration started changing slightly in its attitude towards the DPRK. Instead of holding the position of "no direct talks with the DPRK", the Bush administration opened so-called "New York channel" to exchange information with officials from Pyongyang. To create a better environment for the resumption of six-party talks, Washington has also turned to restrain its lashes against the DPRK leaders and the system of the East Asian country.

The US White House and the State Department have expressed cautious optimism after the date of the fourth round of six-party talks is fixed. During her visit to Asia, Rice kept saying that Pyongyang's decision to return to the talks was just "a first step. "

"It is not the goal of the talks to have talks, the goal of the talks is to have progress," "The issue now is for North Korea to make the strategic choice to give up its nuclear weapons program," Rice told reporters when she was concluding her visit to Beijing.

Indeed, the pending resumption of the six-party talks was described by US mass media as a rare bit of good news for Washington. But the resumption does not necessarily result in positive results although possibility is there. People might still remember that the DPRK walked away more than one year ago from the six-party process after rejecting a US-led aid-for-disarmament proposal that required Pyongyang to give an upfront pledge to dismantle all its nuclear programs before receiving any energy and other assistance.

Objectively speaking, except for its decreasing slashes against Pyongyang and its commitment that the United States has "no intention of invading or attacking" the DPRK, the Bush administration has hardly made any changes in dealing with the nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula. For now, the White House insists on asking Pyongyang to make a serious response to US proposal put forward at the last round of disarmament talks.

In some sense, such US insistence will probably endanger again the future six-party talks if Washington is reluctant to show more flexibility in dealing with nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula.

Source: Xinhua