LDP exec criticizes Rice, ex-top U.S. nuke negotiator

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TOKYO, April 7 Kyodo -
Ruling Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda criticized
Tuesday former senior U.S. officials including former Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice for being ''weak-kneed'' in dealing with the North Korean
nuclear issue, LDP lawmakers said.
By naming Rice and Christopher Hill, former chief U.S. negotiator for North
Korean denuclearization under the George W. Bush administration, Hosoda told an
LDP lawmakers' meeting, ''They were weak-kneed. Their ways (of dealing with the
issue) were wrong,'' the lawmakers said.
It is rare for a senior LDP lawmaker to criticize high-ranking U.S. officials
by name.
Hosoda stressed that there has been no significant progress in the six-party
talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programs, saying, ''North Korea only destroyed a
water-cooling tower'' at the Yongbyon nuclear facility in October 2008, the
lawmakers said.
''It is not clear how many nuclear bombs (North Korea) possesses or how far its
uranium enrichment programs go,'' Hosoda said, expressing the view that poor
handling of the issue by the United States has made North Korea more wayward.
At an LDP executives liaison meeting, Hosoda separately called on the Japanese
government to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs,
saying Japan's response following Pyongyang's rocket launch ''lacks a sense of
crisis,'' according to participants of the meeting.
In the meeting, one participant said, ''We should deal with this issue with a
recognition that Japan needs to possess nuclear (weapon),'' the participants
said.
==Kyodo