US threatens North Korea with assets freeze
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-16 15:52

The United States threatened to freeze North Korean assets if the country did not toe the line in talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, and said it wanted to see progress within five days.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was not solely dependent on the six-party talks, currently deadlocked in Beijing, to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on anti-proliferation measures that help to protect us," Rice said in an interview conducted on Thursday with the New York Post, a transcript of which was released by the State Department.

"The president signed an executive order, if you remember that freezes assets and some entities that we believe that are engaging in proliferation trade," she said.

The talks themselves were in disarray after Pyongyang insisted on being supplied a light-water nuclear reactor, prompting the United States delegation chief to say: "We have a problem."

Christopher Hill (R), U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and top U.S. negotiator for the six-party talks, speaks to journalists before continuation of talks in Beijing September 16, 2005.[Reuters]

Pyongyang had also threatened to boost nuclear weapons production if it was not given the reactor, reports said.

The United States, apparently pushing toward an end-game, said the North's demand held up a deal that would allow aid and security guarantees and Japan, for its part, urged the North to think again.

Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters in Beijing, where North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China were meeting for a fourth day on Friday, that serious difficulties lay ahead.

"In fact, just in the last couple of days, they've come back with a whole new concept. That is a light-water reactor. So indeed we have a problem," Hill said.

Failure to reach an accord at the Beijing talks could prompt Washington to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council and press for sanctions. China opposes such a move, and North Korea has said sanctions would be tantamount to war.

Rice hinted at a deadline.

"So we'll see, I think in the next five or so days ... whether or not they're prepared to make a strategic choice about their nuclear weapons programs ... and that will show us whether we can get a deal."

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