N.Korea threatens nuclear disablement slow down

Oh ,to be in charge ! This whole North Korea situation is just ridiculous , I think it is way past time to get Really tough with "Little Kimmie !" .
Sanctions , though they do work ,work even better when you talk really tough ( AND MEAN IT )

FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) - North Korea threatened to slow down disablement of its main nuclear facility on Saturday after Washington said energy aid to the reclusive state had been suspended due to failed talks on verifying the North's operations.

Pressure mounted on Pyongyang on Saturday, with the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea expressing regret that the North had failed to agree to specific steps on verifying its nuclear activities during multilateral talks in Beijing this week.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said all five countries negotiating with North Korea -- Japan, Russia, China, the United States and South Korea -- had agreed that future fuel shipments would not go forward until there was progress on a so-called verification protocol with Pyongyang.

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"This is an action-for-action process," McCormack told reporters in Washington. "Future fuel shipments aren't going to move forward absent a verification regime ... they (the North Koreans) understand that."

North Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan was quoted by Kyodo news agency as telling reporters in Beijing that Pyongyang would "probably adjust the pace of disablement at nuclear facilities if (the aid) is suspended."

North Korea has been in negotiations with the United States over its nuclear arms program for more than a decade and the issue took on extra urgency after Pyongyang held its first nuclear test explosion in October 2006.

Two months ago, the Bush administration said it was removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, based on Pyongyang's oral commitment to a verification plan.

Experts believe Pyongyang is holding out on a verification protocol until the Obama administration takes over next month.
NORTH "UNCOOPERATIVE"

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak condemned Pyongyang for its "uncooperative attitude" at the talks in Beijing, South Korea's presidential office said in a statement.

Aso and Lee met in southern Japan on Saturday ahead of a rare trilateral summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at which the global financial crisis that is battering their economies topped the agenda.

In a trilateral statement at the talks, the three countries said the six-party talks remained an important mechanism for maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in North Asia at large.

"The three countries will make concerted efforts with other relevant parties to push forward the process of the six-party talks," it said.

The U.S. negotiator with North Korea, Christopher Hill, returned to Washington after the failed Beijing talks and briefed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday, said McCormack, adding that Hill would continue trying to get a deal.

"There's the opportunity for North Korea to sign on to this verification protocol," he said. "That still exists. We'll see. The ball is in their court."
Under an agreement last year, up to 1 million tons of heavy fuel aid was promised to energy-starved North Korea as a reward for progress on denuclearization. Countries outside the five-nation group also have volunteered to supply North Korea with energy as a reward.

By mid-November North Korea had received about half of the amount promised by the five and the United States has provided about 200,000 tons of that, the State Department said.

An unspecified amount of fuel was delivered this month by Russia and will finish being offloaded in North Korea next week, State Department spokesman Robert McInturff told Reuters.

But McCormack said Russia had made clear in this week's talks in Beijing that any future shipments would not be made until North Korea agreed to the verification protocol.