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Powell Rejects North Korea's Talks Demand
Tue Mar 18, 1:11 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) on Tuesday rejected North Korea (news - web sites)'s latest demand for direct talks and said North Korea would complicate diplomacy if it started a plutonium reprocessing plant.


Powell told a small group of reporters that the more he heard demands for direct talks between North Korea and the United States, the more he believed the United States was right to insist on starting talks in a multilateral forum.


North Korean state media on Monday repeated Pyongyang's rejection of any formula other than direct one-to-one talks.


"It is not multilateral talks but direct talks between the DPRK (North Korea) and the U.S. that serve as a key to settling the nuclear issue," said the Rodong Sinmun daily.


Powell said: "We're going to stick with the multilateral arrangement because we think it's best.


"The more I hear about this business of 'the United States must do it this way or else North Korea will never respond,' the more I believe that that is not the correct way to do it."


After North Korea acknowledged a secret uranium enrichment project in October, the United States initially offered talks once North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear programs.


It then changed its position to support for multilateral talks, alongside South Korea (news - web sites), Japan and other Asian countries, without stressing the precondition of dismantling programs.


Analysts said it suited Washington's purposes to delay talks with North Korea until its invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) was complete. President Bush (news - web sites) gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) an ultimatum late on Monday to leave the country in 48 hours or face war.


The North Koreans appear to have sought international attention by testing missiles in the Sea of Japan, buzzing a U.S. spy plane this month and by rhetoric hostile to the United States.


Powell said, "It should be clear to the North Koreans right now that, while we look at these provocations with concerns, they are not going to provoke us into their policy choices."


Asked about the reprocessing plant, he said: "So far they have not begun the reprocessing facility. I don't know if they will or they won't. I think it would make political dialogue and finding a diplomatic way forward much more difficult if they started a reprocessing facility."