NORTH KOREA: Japan and the US urged Pyongyang yesterday to abandon nuclear weapons or risk failure in six-nation talks, while South Korea offered to supply its neighbour with electricity in return for a deal.
North Korea has agreed to return to negotiations on its nuclear ambitions with the US, host China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. The meeting - the first since June 2004 - will be held in the week of July 25th.
"What we really need is a strategic decision on the part of the North that they are indeed ready to give up nuclear weapons because, without that, these talks cannot be successful," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a news conference in Tokyo.
"Just having a meeting is meaningless. If you don't make any progress, there is no point," Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters after his meeting with Dr Rice.
She arrived from Tokyo in Seoul for the final leg of a four-nation Asian trip.
As she arrived, South Korea said it would supply two million kilowatts of power - roughly the capacity of two large nuclear power plants - directly to the North if it agreed to end its nuclear weapons programmes.
Reviving the talks has become more urgent because of concerns that Pyongyang has expanded its nuclear capabilities to eight or more weapons. This is an increase on the one or two weapons it had when President Bush came to office in 2001.
US officials said earlier that North Korea was calling a nuclear-free Korean peninsula the "dying wish" of its late leader, Kim Il-sung, and this might be a way for Pyongyang to explain its decision to return to talks.
But they said there were no concrete signs that the North would surrender its capability.Differences over what mix of carrots and sticks to use in dealing with Pyongyang have plagued the six-party process.
Prior to its power supply pledge, South Korea said it would give 500,000 tonnes of rice to the North to help battle a severe food shortage. Seoul and Pyongyang have recently stepped up bilateral contacts.
Military officials from South and North Korea will have a rare meeting next week aimed at building trust among militaries that face each other across the heavily fortified demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, Seoul's Defence Ministry said.