By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The foreign ministers of South Korea and the United States pressed North Korea Wednesday to meet its earlier pledge to disclose a full list of its nuclear programs, echoing patience is wearing thin over the delay of denuclearization.
``Time and patience are running out,'' Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Yu Myung-hwan told a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington, D.C. ``I hope North Korea will submit a declaration as soon as possible so as not to lose good timing.''
Rice said it was time to move the denuclearization process forward.
``I'm not one to say that exact deadlines are important. To get it right is more important,'' she said. ``But I completely agree with (Minister Yu) that we've been at this for quite a long time.''
North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to declare a complete list of its nuclear programs and activities, including an alleged uranium enrichment program, under a nuclear deal signed early last year with South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Under the pact, the North would receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid and other political concessions from the five other countries, in return for disabling its key nuclear facilities and disclosing its nuclear programs.
The North says it gave the list to the U.S. government in November, a claim Washington has denied. Negotiators at the six-party talks insist that the list address claims of a secret uranium enrichment program and allegations that the regime transferred nuclear technology to Syria.
Rice said Washington was prepared to meet its obligations once North Korea meets its obligations.
The United States earlier pledged the North would receive aid and political concessions, including its removal from U.S. terrorism and sanctions blacklists.
Separately, U.S. President George W. Bush called Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss efforts to break the impasse in the six-way talks.
``The two presidents pledged to continue to work closely with the other six-party partners in urging North Korea to deliver a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear weapons programs and nuclear proliferation activities and to complete the agreed disablement,'' a White House spokesman said.
Besides the nuclear issue, Yu and Rice discussed a range of issues of mutual concern, including agenda items for the summit between the leaders of both countries at the Camp David presidential retreat next month, the ministry said in a news release.
Among topics that the top diplomats addressed are early ratification of a bilateral free trade agreement pending in Seoul's National Assembly and U.S. Congress, South Korea's joining the U.S. Visa Waiver Program and joint efforts to combat terrorism around the world and maintain peace in conflict-ridden nations, it said.
President Lee Myung-bak has pledged to focus more on strengthening ties with the United States than with North Korea, unlike the liberal Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung governments.