U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that hammering out a verification agreement would be a key step to drive forward the process of nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsular.
"The focus on that meeting will be for the six parties to sign on to the verification protocol that has been initialed by the United States and North Korea on behalf of the parties," Rice told a press conference, referring to the next six-party heads of delegation meeting, which is expected to be held in Beijing next week.
"There is no other purpose for the meeting," she said, adding "we have a document, we also have a number of assurances and a number of understandings that now will need to be codified by the six parties."
"I might just note the disabling has resumed and it needs to continue to conclusion. ... But this verification protocol is now the key," the secretary said.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed in 2007in talks with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to disable its Yongbyon nuclear facilities in exchange for economic aid and political concessions, including its removal from the U.S. terrorism list.
After U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill paid a three-day visit to Pyongyang in early October and struck a verification deal with the DPRK to save the stalled six-party talks, the Bush administration dropped the country from the terrorism blacklist on Oct. 11.
But the two countries have disputed over the verification issue, when the U.S. side claims inspectors, according to the deal reached with the DPRK, could take samples away from the nuclear facilities. The DPRK, however, insists that it never agreed to remove the samples.
The DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the main points of the verification deal includes confined verification in the Yongbyon nuclear facilities, the methods of verification include field visits, confirmation of documents, and interviews with technicians.
The verification process would only be initiated after the economic compensation -- 1 million tons of fuel oil or equivalent -- had been delivered, the statement said.
Source:Xinhua
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