AP Interview: US envoy says sanctions are putting pressure on NKorea to halt nuclear program

AP Interview: Rice says NKorea is feeling pressure

UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says tough U.N. sanctions are putting pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

Susan Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press and APTN on Tuesday that North Korea is indicating in various ways that it is feeling the pressure of sanctions and perhaps responding to it. She declined to elaborate.

Rice stressed that a visit to Pyongyang earlier this month by U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth was not to open U.S.-North Korean negotiations, but to state very clearly that the Obama administration expects the North to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program.

Those negotiations began in late 2003 and include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.