U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday the United States will not provide "up front" benefits to North Korea if it agrees to dismantle its nuclear programs, rejecting a key condition laid out by the North Korean government Friday for its return to six-nation negotiations on its weapons programs. The United States has maintained it would only provide benefits, such as a security guarantee, after North Korea has disclosed the full extent of its programs -- and those claims have been verified. Powell, arriving in Tokyo on the first leg of a three-day tour of East Asia to discuss the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, noted to reporters traveling with him that South Korea and Japan have offered to immediately assist North Korea. But he said the United States would not be joining such a package. "President Bush is committed to assisting the Korean people to a better life and to help the Korean people to deal with problems of food sufficiency, energy," Powell said. ''But we can't start putting things up front on the table, from our perspective, because we do not think that is the way to ultimately achieve out mutual objective, which is complete removal of a nuclear weapons program and all of its parts from North Korea." Powell added that North Korea should not be setting any conditions for returning to the talks. "Any outstanding issues that are holding up progress should be dealt with in the context of the discussions, not press statements or rhetoric going back and forth," he said.
