USA: U.S., Japan expect North Korea to move on nuclear pact

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. does not have "endless patience" with North Korea. The United States and Japan expect North Korea to immediately meet its initial obligations under a six-nation disarmament pact, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday (May 1), two weeks after the North missed a deadline for shutting down its main nuclear reactor. "We agreed that we must continue to expect North Korea to immediately fulfil its initial action agreements," Rice said. "We don't have endless patience. We do recognise that North Korea has continued to publicly affirm its obligation under the February 13 agreement and to affirm its intention to carry through. We expect them to do so," she told reporters. Rice's talks with her Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Japanese Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma followed a warning issued by the two countries' leaders last week that North Korea could face tougher steps such as sanctions if it did not comply. U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday (April 27) expressed concern that North Korea missed an April 14 deadline to start shutting its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the Soviet-era source of plutonium for its bombs. The deadline was required by a deal North Korea reached on February 13 with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States under which Pyongyang would get energy and economic aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament. At the same news conference, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said they were still to get confirmation on reports that al-Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been killed. "We've heard the reports of Al-Masri and we're trying with the Iraqis to confirm whether of not it's true. I think we don't know the answer to that at this point," Gates said. The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was believed killed in a battle between insurgents north of Baghdad, Iraqi security ministers said on Tuesday, but an al Qaeda-linked group denied the reports. The United States ambassador to Iraq and the U.S. military said they could not confirm al-Masri had been killed but a website linked to al-Qaeda rejected this on Tuesday.

ITN Source | May 2, 2007

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