NORTH KOREA: North Korea and the United States yesterday disagreed on the opening day of six-way talks on how to end Pyongyang's nuclear programmes. Meanwhile, South Korea offered aid to the struggling North in return for progress.
Seoul would be more flexible in the talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis and was ready to provide a security guarantee in return for nuclear dismantlement, South Korea's Foreign Minister, Mr Ban Ki-moon, said.
North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China began two days of working-level talks to lay the foundation for a third round of complex discussions this week on the crisis.
Pyongyang held out the prospect of a "road map" for freezing or dismantling its nuclear programme if the US and others said what they would give in return, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
The US has reportedly rejected the offer, saying the communist state must first come up with a detailed plan for a freeze leading to eventual nuclear dismantlement.
Officials from several parties involved have cautioned that scant progress could be expected at the talks, which are aimed at ending a 20-month standoff between the US and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
"It is of crucial importance to have some visible progress, to have North Korea commit themselves to dismantling their nuclear development programme completely in a transparent manner," Mr Ban said of his hopes for the third round of talks, which begin tomorrow in Beijing.
"In such a case, we would be ready to provide the corresponding measures in a formal security assurance and international economic assistance, including energy, which they are badly in need of."
This year, the US shifted its hardline position to say it would not oppose offers of aid from other countries to the North in return for a freeze, but insisted on the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of the programme before offering security guarantees.
"We would like to make quite sure that North Korea's nuclear programme, including HEU (heavily enriched uranium) should be frozen, ultimately leading to complete and verifiable dismantlement," Mr Ban said in an interview on the sidelines of an Asian forum in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao.
"In such a case, as we have already said, we are ready to supply energy assistance as a first step," he added.
"This is a more acceptable, and I think more flexible proposal than previous ones," Mr Ban said.
The crisis erupted in October 2002, when US officials said North Korea had disclosed it was working on a secret programme to enrich uranium, in violation of an international agreement.
North Korea denies a uranium-enrichment programme, but in 2003 it threw out UN inspectors, withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and restarted a nuclear reactor from which weapons-grade plutonium can be extracted.
China proposed putting off the opening of the senior-level main talks by one day so that the countries involved could hold a series of bilateral meetings.
But Chinese Foreign Minister Mr Li Zhaoxing appeared upbeat.
"I hope we will make progress. We hope the peninsula will be nuclear-free and enjoy peace and stability," Mr Li told reporters.
Many analysts have said North Korea may be waiting for the outcome of the US presidential elections in November before deciding whether to take part in serious bargaining.