US wants written N Korea nuclear commitments

United Nations: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday the Bush administration will keep trying to get North Korea to make written commitments on inspection of its nuclear programmes until President George W. Bush leaves office on January 20.

Six-nation disarmament talks in Beijing ended in a stalemate last week over the North's refusal to put into writing any commitments on inspecting its past nuclear activities. The failure of the talks blocked progress on an aid-for-disarmament agreement reached last year and all but extinguished hopes of a successful legacy on the issue by the Bush administration.

Rice told reporters at UN headquarters that five of the six parties - the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia - "are completely agreed" on how North Korea's past nuclear activities should be verified.

"What happened in Beijing was that the North Koreans at this last session wouldn't write them down," she said.

"But there is, in fact, a verification protocol and a set of assurances that the five are agreed to and that the North Koreans - at least privately before we lifted the terrorist designation - had also agreed to," Rice said, "and so we'll just have to work through this."

In late June, Bush relaxed trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to take it off the US terrorism blacklist in exchange for Kim Jong Il's decision to hand over a long-awaited accounting of its nuclear bomb-making abilities. The US actions were seen as crucial to making progress in negotiations meant to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

But Pyongyang balked at putting its commitments on inspections in writing.