ÿþ<html> <head> <title> Rice Highlights International Efforts To Confront North Korea, Iran </title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=EUC-KR"> <meta name="KEYWORDS" lang="en-us" content="North Korea"> <meta name="KEYWORDS" lang="kr" content="North Korea"> <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000EE" vlink="#551A8B" alink="#FF0000"> <table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="588" align=center > <tr> <td WIDTH="100%" HEIGHT="11"><img SRC="wwwgztop.gif" height=30 width=588> <img SRC="http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/img/assets/3602/WashingtonFile.gif" alt="Washington File"> <p> <font size=-1> <!-- BEGIN DATA BUFFER --> <p>16 November 2006</p> <h3>Rice Highlights International Efforts To Confront North Korea, Iran</h3> <p class="subhead">Pyongyang, Tehran must abandon nuclear activities, join international talks</p> <p class="byline">By David McKeeby<br/>USINFO Staff Writer<br/><br/> </p> <div class="photo1"> <div id="p1large" class="popupbox"> <div class="boximage"> <img name="LargePhoto1" src="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/usinfo-photo/39/week_2/111706-apec-200.jpg" alt="Foreign and Trade ministers at the APEC meeting" border="0"/> </div> <div class="boxtext"> Foreign and Trade ministers attending the APEC meeting pose for a group photo in Hanoi, Thursday, November 16. From left : Pham Gia Khiem and Truong Dinh Tuyen from Vietnam, Yu Myung-hwan and Kim Hyun-chong from South Korea, Condoleezza Rice and Susan Schwab from USA, Nitya Pibulsonggram and Krirk-Krai Jirapaet from Thailand. (© AP Images) <br/> </div> </div> <p>Washington -- International efforts to confront North Korea and Iran s nuclear weapons programs topped the agenda of a foreign ministers security conference on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Hanoi, Vietnam.</p> <p>Speaking to reporters after the November 16 meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the continued importance of international diplomatic partnerships such as the Six-Party Talks on North Korea and the P5+1 process to address Iran s covert nuclear program.</p> <p> Multilateralism doesn't mean that you simply put all nations at the table, Rice said.  Multilateralism means that everybody is bringing to the table their capacity, their assets, their ability to affect an actual outcome that is positive. </p> <p>NORTH KOREA MUST PROVE COMMITMENT TO DIPLOMACY</p> <p>With Kim Jong-Il s government preparing to rejoin China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States in the Six-Party Talks, Rice stressed that Pyongyang must be ready to show a renewed commitment to making progress toward implementing the September 2005 Joint Statement, which aimed to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, deliver desperately needed aid to the people of North Korea and begin normalizing North Korea s relations with its neighbors.</p> <p>But Rice said that North Korea s July 4-5 ballistic missile tests and its subsequent October 9 nuclear weapons test raised questions among foreign ministers attending the security conference about Pyongyang s commitment to the Joint Statement. (See <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&amp;y=2006&amp;m=November&amp;x=20061115170727liameruoy0.7550775">related article</a>.)</p> <p> I do think that after having set off a nuclear test & the North Koreans need to do something to demonstrate that they actually are committed to denuclearization that goes beyond words, Rice said.</p> <p>Rice told reporters that the foreign ministers agreed that the time for talk was over and that concrete results must come out of the next round of Six-Party Talks.   A six-party outcome is needed this time, not just Six-Party Talks, she said.</p> <p>Another element of the international community s support of the Six-Party Talks was the unanimous passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1695 following the June missile tests, as well as UNSC 1718.</p> <p>UNSC 1718 requires member states to prevent the supply, sale or transfer of a specific list of items that could contribute to North Korea s weapons programs, as well as luxury goods enjoyed by North Korean elites and denied to other citizens.</p> <p>These sanctions, Rice said, helped convince North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks and illustrate the importance of continued multilateral diplomacy.  (See <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&amp;y=2006&amp;m=October&amp;x=20061031172844esnamfuak0.9691889">related article</a>.)  U.N. resolutions &quot;now provide a new context in which we can try to achieve denuclearization, she said.</p> <p>SECURITY COUNCIL DEVELOPING IRAN RESOLUTION</p> <p>Another example of effective multilateralism is the ongoing push by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- who with Germany make up the P5+1. These nations are working to convince Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.  (See <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&amp;y=2006&amp;m=November&amp;x=20061114170231MVyelwarC0.5502588">related article</a>.)</p> <p>The U.N. Security Council has been working for weeks to negotiate a resolution on Iran s continued refusal to discontinue its nuclear enrichment activities, Rice said. As with North Korea, the Security Council agrees on the need for a resolution and diplomats remain engaged in working out the specifics of the resolution, Rice added.  (See <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&amp;y=2006&amp;m=October&amp;x=20061026174530ajatia6.487674e-02">related article</a>.)</p> <p>Iranian officials have refused offers to join talks with the P5+1 and have publicly dismissed the threat of international sanctions. However, Rice told reporters,  it shouldn t surprise anybody that every time we get close to a Security Council resolution, every Iranian diplomat in the world is on a plane somewhere to argue against Security Council resolutions. </p> <p>The <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/76068.htm">transcript</a> of Rice s remarks is available from the State Department Web site.</p> <p>For more information, see <i><a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/east_asia_pacific/north_korea.html">The U.S. and the Korean Peninsula</a></i> and <i><a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/is/">International Security</a></i>.</p> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>