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Rice Says Decision To Seek Sanctions on North Korea Not Imminent

06 June 2005

Says United States reviewing options, but still supports six-party approach

Washington -- The United States has not set a deadline for resolving the issue of North Korea's nuclear activities and is not close to a decision on whether to seek U.N. sanctions against the Pyongyang government, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 

Rice answered questions from the press while en route to a meeting of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, June 5.

She was asked about an earlier quote from an unnamed senior official of the Department of Defense suggesting that the Bush administration plans to make a decision within weeks on whether to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council. 

"The United States is constantly reviewing what it is going to do to deal with what is a very serious situation," Rice said.  "I think the idea that within weeks we're going to decide one way or another is a little forward-leaning."

Multilateral negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programs have been at an impasse for almost a year.  The negotiations, known as the Six-Party Talks, involve China, Japan, Russia, the United States, and North and South Korea.

Rice said President Bush and she do not "put timelines on issues" and "still believe that there is life left in the Six-Party Talks." 

"It is an extremely important accomplishment that all of North Korea's neighbors are united in a common goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and united in the common goal that that means that North Korea has to give up its nuclear weapons," she said.      

The secretary said the administration would continue to work on the negotiations, but she did not reject other options, including a referral to the U.N. Security Council.

A transcript of her remarks is available on the State Department Web site. 

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)