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Thursday May 3, 8:40 AM5 nations' ministers may meet in Egypt on N. Korea's nuke programs(Kyodo) _ Foreign ministers from five nations discussing denuclearization with North Korea may meet in Egypt on Friday to put pressure on Pyongyang to fulfill February's disarmament deal, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.The United States floated the idea to China, South Korea, Japan and Russia as foreign ministers from all those countries are scheduled to attend a ministerial conference on Iraq in the resort of Sharm El-Sheik on Thursday and Friday, the sources said. While U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wants to reaffirm the unity of the five nations on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, it is unclear whether other states such as China will agree to the proposal, they said. Rice warned Pyongyang on Tuesday that Washington will not wait endlessly for it to take initial denuclearization steps as required under the Feb. 13 six-way agreement, now that the 60-day deadline to fulfill the accord has passed. While acknowledging that the issue of releasing frozen North Korea-related funds at a Macao bank was "more complicated than we had realized," Rice said, "We don't have endless patience." North Korea says it will not proceed with the agreement until it confirms the release of the funds. The initial steps involve North Korea shutting down and sealing its Yongbyon nuclear complex and accepting International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. |
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