U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that North Korea's actions to reactivate a key nuclear facility did not mean an end to six-country nuclear negotiations but instead deepen Pyongyang's isolation. “By no means,” Rice replied when asked if North Korea's moves to reactivate its plutonium-producing Yongbyon facility meant an end to six-country nuclear-disablement negotiations. “We have been through ups and downs in this process before.” The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Wednesday that North Korea had expelled U.N. monitors from Yongbyon and planned to begin reactivation next week, reversing a 2007 agreement to abandon its nuclear-weapon programs. “We believe that for the North Koreans to do so, it will only deepen its isolation,” Rice told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Rice said she met this week with the foreign ministers of China and South Korea to discuss how to proceed with the latest moves from Pyongyang, and she said she would meet Russia's foreign minister later on Wednesday. The six-country talks comprise the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia.
