6-way talks essential to end N. Korean nuke: Clinton

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details, background throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
Tuesday that the six-party talks are "essential" to ending North Korea's nuclear
weapons ambitions.

"With respect to North Korea, the six-party talks are essential," Clinton said in
her first news briefing since taking office Thursday, adding the multilateral
talks have been "a useful forum for participants to deal with the challenge of
North Korea's nuclear program, and the other issues that are part of the North
Korean agenda."
The top U.S. diplomat would not dismiss dealing with the North bilaterally as
well as through the six-party talks, saying "We are going to pursue steps that we
think are effective. And I think I will leave it at that."
Clinton was repeating her remarks made at her confirmation hearing before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that she would engage North Korea
directly as well as through the six-party talks to address the communist nation's
alleged uranium-based nuclear program and suspected nuclear proliferation as well
as its declared plutonium-producing reactor.
She also said that she would employ "smart power" that "requires reaching out to
both friends and adversaries, to bolster old alliances and to forge new ones."
Clinton was echoing the pledge made by U.S. President Barack Obama during his
inaugural address last week that he would "work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear
threat with old friends and former foes."
Obama has said during his election campaign that he will meet with North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il to address the threats from North Korea, which detonated its
first nuclear device in 2006 and has test fired long-range missiles. The missiles
are believed to have the capability to reach the western part of mainland
America.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a daily news briefing that what
Clinton said was clear. "She said it's essential, the six-party framework. And I
think the word essential basically tells you a lot."
Wood said that the Obama administration was reviewing its policy "with regard to
North Korea and its nuclear weapons programs," but would not present a time frame
for the reviewing process.
Under a series of six-party deals in the past years, North Korea agreed to
denuclearize in return for massive economic aid, normalization of ties with
Washington and Tokyo and establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
The six-party process, however, hit a snag in the latest round last month when
Pyongyang refused to agree to a verification protocol for its nuclear facilities.
"My understanding is we wanted North Korea to sign on to a verification protocol
and all of the details in writing. The North didn't want to do that," Wood said.
"So the ball really is in the North's court with regard to meeting its -- meeting
the obligations that it agreed to."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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