China-Taiwan affair compels US to assure no attack on North Korea
MIL, Mar 20, 2005. Special Correspondent
In view of the new law enacted by China's Parliament to attack Taiwan, United States has softened its stand towards North Korea. US Secretary of State Condo Rice said on Sunday that the US has no plans to attack North Korea. In the same breath, she said that Pyongyang must give up its nuclear program.
"We have absolutely no desire to attack North Korea. We have no reason to do it," Rice said in an interview to South Korean Internet news outlet.
"We do not deny that North Korea is a sovereign state and so it should not fear that the US could attack it," she said.
However, she reiterated Pyongyang to make a "strategic choice" to abandon its nuclear program to prevail peace in the region.
She said that the US could hold direct talks with North Korea on the nuclear issue but not outside the framework of the six-party nuclear talks, if North Korea so wishes to clear all clouds of doubts. She said at a joint press conference with her South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-moon.
The US official made it clear that there would be no direct US-North Korea talks outside the six-party talks because the nuclear issue was a regional one.
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