Rice: No Chinese breakthrough in Pyongyang, Kim is bent on escalation

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threw cold water on reports that in talks with Chinese special envoy Tang Jiaxuan, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had regretted the first nuclear test carried out on Oct. 9 and promised not to test again. Reporting on her own Beijing talks on the way to Moscow, Rice said “Tang did not tell me that Kim Jong-il either apologized or said he would never test again” in his “fairly thorough briefing” to her on his Pyongyang mission. The North Koreans, she said, “would like to see an escalation of the tension.” She described their tone as still being belligerent.
Moscow is the last stop in the US secretary’s five-day Asian trip which included Tokyo and Seoul to strengthen the sanctions the UN imposed on North Korea for its nuclear test.

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