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US to give North Korea more time

The US has said it is willing to give North Korea more time to act on its nuclear disarmament pledge after talks with Japan on regional security issues.
But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, warned Pyongyang their two countries did not have "endless patience".

Ms Rice also reaffirmed Washington's commitment to a plan to transform its mutual defence partnership with Japan.

The US wants Japan to take a more active military role in the region.

To allow such a move, the Japanese government has begun steps to revise the country's pacifist constitution.

Tokyo is also currently in the process of buying two missile defence systems, after which it will be responsible for defending not only itself but also the 50,000 US troops stationed on its territory.

Patience

The bilateral talks in Tokyo brought together US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Japan's defence minister, Fumio Kyuma, in addition to Ms Rice and Mr Aso.

Afterwards, Ms Rice said the US and Japan would continue to strengthen their military alliance in light of North Korea's nuclear test in October and China's military dominance.

"The United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range of deterrence and security commitments to Japan," she said.

"Our meeting today demonstrates our commitment and our resolve to ensure that this alliance doesn't just continue, but that it gets stronger."

When asked about North Korea's refusal to shut its nuclear reactor by 14 April because of a dispute over $25 million of its funds frozen in a Macao bank by the US, Ms Rice said the financial issue had been "considerably more complicated than perhaps we had realised".

"We have been willing to step back and give some time for this to be resolved," she added.

Nevertheless, Ms Rice warned Pyongyang that the US and Japan expected to fulfil its initial commitments to disarmament as soon as possible.

"We don't have endless patience," she said.

"We do recognise that North Korea has continued to publicly affirm its obligation under the 13 February agreement and to affirm its intention to carry through. We expect them to do so."

The 13 February agreement saw North Korea commit to shut down and seal for eventual abandonment its main nuclear site at Yongbyon by 14 April.

In return, Pyongyang was promised aid equivalent to 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO), with a further 950,000 tons to follow once all its nuclear activities were fully declared and disabled.

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NKorea fund transfer via US mulled: report

TOKYO (AFP) - The United States is considering transferring North Korean funds via a US bank to end a financial standoff holding up a nuclear disarmament deal, a report said Thursday.

Japan's Kyodo News, citing anonymous sources in Washington, said that the US government hoped to resolve the row within a few days and was looking into letting a US bank handle North Korean money as a "special case."

Macau's Banco Delta Asia would transfer the cash to a US bank which would in turn send it to a third country, Kyodo News said.

North Korea has refused to comply with February's breakthrough six-nation nuclear deal until it receives $25 million stuck in Macau.

The United States said the funds were the suspected proceeds of money-laundering and counterfeiting. In an attempt to move the nuclear pact forward, Washington announced in March that the funds had been unfrozen.

But foreign banks are unwilling to handle the suspicious cash for fear of sullying their own reputations.

North Korea cited the dispute as a reason to boycott six-nation talks for more than a year, during which it tested an atomic bomb.

It signed a disarmament-for-aid agreement on February 13 but refused to carry out its commitments to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allow in UN inspectors by April 14, saying it was waiting to see the money.

Japan, which has tense relations with North Korea, has taken the hardest line in the six-way talks and has threatened new sanctions unless Pyongyang meets its commitments.

"We will soon, maybe within a week or so, talk with the United States about how we have had enough," Foreign Minister Taro Aso told a lower house panel Wednesday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan "won't stay patient forever."

"If North Korea does not carry out what it had promised, we will have to think about a variety of options," Abe told reporters late Wednesday.

Japan has already imposed sweeping sanctions against North Korea including a ban on all imports. Advocates of stronger action have suggested measures such as banning exports and blacklisting ships that travel to the communist state.

Japan has refused to fund February's US-backed deal, saying it will not help North Korea until an emotionally charged kidnapping dispute is resolved.

North Korea in 2002 admitted that it kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies in Japanese language and culture.

Pyongyang returned five, but Japan has rejected its claim that the rest are dead.