Rice meets Chinese leaders to try to resolve NKorean impasse
(10 Jul 2005) SHOTLIST 1. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice walking to podium, greeting journalists 2. Mid shot news conference 3. Close-up journalists 4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State: "It's a very good thing that we're going back to the talks the week of July 25th, but it is only a start. It is not the goal of the talks to have talks. It is the goal of the talks to have progress, so I am hopeful that in the discussions that will take place with the North over the next couple of weeks up to the start of the talks that that message will be clear." 5. Cutaway media 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State: "There is no doubt that we have concerns about the size and pace of the Chinese military build-up, and this is not just the Pentagon. I've made it clear to people that this is a view held by the US government. That does not mean that we view China as quote, unquote 'a threat', we just take note of the fact that there is a significant military build-up going on, that it is concerning, that we have concerns about the military balance, and of course that the United States continues to modernise its own forces so that we can continue to be a force for stability and peace in this region." 7. Cutaway media 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State: "We've also had an opportunity, or I had an opportunity to raise questions of human rights and religious freedom, to raise a few individual cases, but also to encourage China's leaders to work with us toward a resolution of some of the structural issues in human rights and religious freedom and to ask that China reach out to, in particular the Dalai Lama - a man who is for Tibet a man of considerable authority and considerable moral authority but who really is not a threat to China." 9. Cutaway media 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State: "It is America's desire that there be no unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. That means we don't support unilateral moves toward independence by Taiwan - we've made that very clear. It also means that we are concerned about the military balance, and we'll say to China that they should do nothing militarily to provoke Taiwan. So the United States has a long-held policy here. We are adhering to it. We do think that cross-Straits contacts are a good thing, and to the degree that the Chinese government has been engaging in those cross-Straits contacts, we think it's good. We would that would extend to contacts with the elected government of Taiwan." 11. Wide shot of press conference 12. Rice leaving the press conference STORYLINE US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Chinese state councillor Tang Jiaxuan in Beijing on Sunday, a week before the councillor is due to visit North Korea. At a news conference earlier on Sunday, Rice warned that North Korea's decision to resume nuclear disarmament talks didn't mean the United States was any closer to its long-standing goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. As Rice arrived in Beijing on Saturday night, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan told US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill that his government was prepared to return to the bargaining table during the week of July 25 after a year-long boycott. The six-party discussions, in addition to the United States and North Korea, involve China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Three rounds of discussions were held during 2003 and 2004, producing scant progress toward the US goal of verifiable dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
