The United States will make sure North Korea comes back to nuclear negotiations fully prepared to make progress, even if it takes time, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed Thursday.
She expressed confidence that the North Koreans would come back, even though a resumption date was not set at a meeting in Beijing earlier this week.
"The North Koreans have said they will come back to the talks.
That's a done deal," she said in a media roundtable in Jordan, where she was visiting. The transcript of her comments was released here Friday by the State Department.
"What we are doing is preparing the talks, and so if it takes some time to prepare the talks, that's worth doing," she said.
"It really is, what are the expectations of this next round. And that may take some time."
Most of the negotiators from the six-party talks were in Beijing, sitting down for bilateral and trilateral sessions to explore what is necessary at the next round of nuclear negotiations.
The six-nation forum, involving South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, is set to reopen after nearly a year in hiatus. Pyongyang last month agreed to return to the table.
But the negotiators left without concrete agreements in Beijing.
North Korean officials said they need to go back to Pyongyang for internal discussions.
Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator, earlier hoped for the talks to reopen in mid-December. Stopping in Tokyo on his way back to Washington, he said he was still hopeful for a resumption in December.
"But I think the ball is very much in the North Korean court," he told reporters at the airport.
The U.S. gave North Koreans suggestions on how the next six-party talks can proceed and invited them to give their own ideas, said Hill.
"Unfortunately, he (North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan) didn't have anything new, but I told him to take his time," he said.
Washinton, Dec. 1 (Yonhap News)
Rice says six-party prep talks may take time but are worth doing |
