WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura, on Monday jointly urged China to play a more active role in reining in North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.
They held "strong hopes for an even further active role by China" in its attempts to prod North Korea back to multilateral talks designed to scrap the hardline communist state's nuclear arms programs, Machimura told reporters after the talks.
The call came amid signals from Washington that patience is wearing thin over North Korea's refusal to return to six-party talks chaired by China, and tough statements by Pyongyang that it would step up its nuclear weapons buildup.
On Sunday, North Korea test-fired a short-range missile off its east coast, a day before the opening of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York.
Rice and Machimura also discussed the possibility of referring the Korean nuclear crisis to the United Nations Security Council as an option.
"We touched upon that at this meeting, as well, as one of the options on the table, but the primary thing is to realise the six-party talks as soon as possible. But everything else is on the table, as well," Machimura said.
China hosted three rounds of the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, Russia, the United States and Japan. North Korea failed to show up for a fourth round set for September 2004.
05/02/2005 16:59 GMT