"We need to resolve this issue, it cannot go on forever," she told a news conference. However, Ms. Rice repeatedly emphasized during her visit here that the U.S. doesn't intend to attack North Korea.

Rice Says that Nuclear Standoff With North Korea Has to End

Rice Says EU Weapons Sales to China Would Threaten Balance of Power in Pacific

Associated Press
March 20, 2005 3:15 a.m.

SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday warned that Washington won't let the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons "go on forever," calling with South Korean leaders for Pyongyang to return to six-nation disarmament talks so it can get needed aid and international respect.

After meeting officials in the South Korean capital Seoul, Ms. Rice said both sides would devote "maximum efforts" to the six-nation talks.

The U.S., Russia, Japan, South Korea and China began a joint diplomatic effort with North Korea in 2003 aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, but it has been stalled since North Korea refused to attend the last scheduled round of talks in September.

Last month, North Korea declared it had nuclear weapons and would indefinitely continue its boycott.

Ms. Rice also reiterated that Washington won't enter direct talks with North Korea as it has demanded. "This is not an issue of the United States and North Korea, this is an issue of the neighborhood and what kind of Korean Peninsula we are going to have," Ms. Rice said.

However, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told Ms. Rice that Seoul isn't sure how to lure the North back to the negotiations.

"This is a difficult problem. In fact, we don't see a clear key [to solve the issue] right now but if we try, I think we can resolve the problem," Mr. Roh said, according to his office.

Ahead of his meeting with Ms. Rice, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he hoped a comment she made, that the U.S. recognizes North Korea as a sovereign country, would help "create an environment conducive to resuming talks."

Mr. Ban said he understood it would be difficult for her to directly respond to the North's demand she retract her statement labeling it as an "outpost of tyranny." Ms. Rice said the North's focus on her words were an attempt to "change the subject."

Ms. Rice also said Sunday that any European Union move to resume weapons sales to China threatens to upset the balance of power in the Pacific.

"We have managed over the last decades to maintain a stable environment" in the Pacific, Ms. Rice said in Seoul before flying to Beijing. "And obviously, anything that would appear to try and alter that balance would be a concern to us."

The U.S. has been calling on China, a key ally of North Korea, to play a larger role in resuming the stalled six-nation talks. Ms. Rice's visit to China follows the country's decision to codify a threat to attack Taiwan if the island declares independence.

European nations are considering resuming weapons sales to China that were suspended after the deadly 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square. The Bush administration opposes the move, citing a possible breakdown in the region's security balance.

"The European Union should do nothing to contribute to a circumstance in which Chinese military modernization draws on European Union technology," Ms. Rice said Sunday. "It is the United States, not Europe that has defended the Pacific."

Taiwan and China split in 1949, but Beijing considers the democratic, self-ruled island to be Chinese territory. Beijing has repeatedly threatened to attack if Taiwan tries to make its de facto independence permanent.

Earlier Sunday, Ms. Rice extolled the virtues of free and open societies at a news conference with Internet journalists. Prior to the conference, security guards wrestled a man to ground as he loudly called for American intervention to free the communist North.

"Miss Rice, the North Korean people are dying and they are crying for your help," yelled the activist, German physician and former aid worker Norbert Vollertsen. He held up a poster that read, "Freedom for North Korea: 50 Years Overdue," until an embassy employee ripped it in half.

As Ms. Rice took her seat for the conference, security officers muffled Mr. Vollertsen as they wrestled him to the floor. He had talked his way into the media gathering before Ms. Rice arrived, but an embassy public affairs officer recognized him at the last moment and demanded he be removed.

Speaking to that group, Ms. Rice described true democracy as the ability to "say what you wish, worship as you please and educate your children." In contrast to the closed society of North Korea, Ms. Rice said, "you can come here and think what you want and ask me anything -- the United States secretary of state -- and what a wonderful thing that is."

On Saturday, Ms. Rice became the most senior American official to tour a command center for U.S. and South Korean troops that would be the battle headquarters in the event of fighting with the communist North.

"I know that you face a close-in threat every day," Ms. Rice told troops at Command Post Tango, or Theater Air Naval Ground Operations, south of Seoul, late Saturday.

More than 32,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, with more at the ready nearby, five decades after active hostilities ended in the Korean War.

"In parts of the world, the Cold War has ended and we've been able to [produce] a continent like Europe, that is now whole and free," Ms. Rice told commanders and troops. "But of course, divisions remain here in Korea."

"The Republic of Korea, a great democracy now, faces a threat across the divide of a state that is not democratic, that is not free, and that does not have the best interests of its people at heart," Ms. Rice said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

North Korea has denounced the exercises as a rehearsal for a U.S.-led pre-emptive attack.

Copyright © 2005 Associated Press