By DPA,
Seoul : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Seoul Saturday for talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme, a day after Pyongyang destroyed a cooling tower at its Yongbyon plant in a move to show it will dismantle its controversial programme.
Rice arrived from Japan where she had attended a meeting in Kyoto of the foreign ministers of the Group of Eight, the world’s seven leading economies and Russia.
The talks in Seoul are aimed at verifying the declaration of nuclear activities which North Korea presented to China on Thursday, and to resume the so-called Six-party talks to end the long-running row over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
Rice will also discuss defence cooperation between Washington and Seoul with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung Hwan, before travelling on to China Sunday.
Following its belated nuclear report, North Korea had Friday destroyed the Yongbyon cooling tower to demonstrate its intent to end its nuclear programme.
In exchange, Washington plans to take the communist country off its list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, and to lift economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
The moves are part of agreements reached in the six-country talks involving US,China, Russia and Japan and the two Koreas.