Visiting US
Undersecretary of State John Bolton Monday held talks with two
Chinese vice-foreign ministers on topics including the nuclear
stand-off on the Korean Peninsula and other arms-related
issues.
The top United States
arms-control official held talks with Zhang Yesui and Wang Yi in
the second round of Sino-US security talks.
He is scheduled to leave
China today for the Republic of Korea and Japan.
The timetable has not
been settled for a new round of multilateral talks on the Korean
nuclear issue, Bolton told a Beijing press conference held after
yesterday's talks.
"I don't think there is
anything on the date, one or the other, that I could really
indicate," he said.
He told the briefing
that Washington has no intention of invading the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea and that people should focus on
Pyongyang's alleged nuclear weapons program.
The DPRK is not Iraq,
Bolton said. He added: "The context is very different. The
circumstances are very different, and the history has been very
different."
He said that President
(George W.) Bush has made clear for quite some time that what the
United States seek in the case of DPRK is the peaceful
dismantlement of this country's nuclear weapons program.
(China Daily July 29,
2003)