South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan warned Wednesday that "time and patience is running out" as he joined US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in calling on North Korea to fully disclose its nuclear activities. ( dpa )
Rice said that North Korea's failure so far to submit the declaration under the February 2007 agreement has held up the resumption six-nation talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
"With the declaration in hand we can move forward to the next phase to actually dismantle the North Korean programme," Rice said after meeting with Yu.
North Korea missed the December 31 deadline to list the extent of its nuclear work, and the issue has blocked further negotiations among China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.
North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear programme in return for energy and humanitarian aid. Negotiations have since followed to implement the arrangement. North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb for the first time in October 2006.