N. Korea agrees to revive talks

TOKYO -- North Korea agreed yesterday to resume six-nation talks Feb. 25, a breakthrough in American-led efforts to persuade the communist state to abandon its nuclear weapons programs for economic and other concessions from Washington.

But the fresh round of negotiations is likely to start with the two key players -- Washington and Pyongyang -- still holding widely divergent positions, dampening hopes for a swift solution to the crisis, officials close to the negotiations said.

The first round, held last August between North Korea and the United States, China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea, ended with virtually no progress.

In the weeks and months since, China especially had sought to lay the groundwork for a speedy resolution by narrowing the gap between the Bush administration, which is seeking the complete and verifiable dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear program, and the North Koreans, who have offered to merely freeze their program in exchange for a list of demands including economic aid and oil shipments.

Attempts to narrow those differences have met with little success, according to diplomats from three of the nations involved in the talks. Now, the parties appear to be shooting for a lower bar of simply advancing the dialogue.

In short, North Korea's neighbors appear prepared for protracted talks, with the new round later this month marking a still tough starting point. "We're not bringing any agendas," said Lee Soo Hyuck, South Korea's deputy foreign minister. "The agenda is resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. It may be difficult to hold big expectations for a breakthrough from the talks, but the position of each party would become clearer."

Russia's deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov, echoed those sentiments. "The difference of stances between Washington and Pyongyang is very great," he told the ITAR-Tass news agency, insisting that the agreement to meet is "not a breakthrough, but an understanding in what direction to develop the negotiating process is necessary."

But North Korea, Asian diplomats say, may in fact be prepared to take an important first step -- offering to not only freeze its nuclear program, but potentially allowing weapons inspectors expelled more than a year ago to return to its Yongbyon nuclear facility. The Pyongyang government claims to have reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium at the plant.

In exchange, however, North Korea is likely to insist on at least one of its demands: the quick resumption of international oil shipments cut off under US pressure after North Korea's admission in late 2002 to possessing a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the sources said. In addition, North Korea is likely to be pressed on at least several other incremental concessions. They include a broad agreement to hold regular nuclear talks and signing on to bilateral negotiations with Japan aimed at fully resolving Pyongyang's admitted abduction of Japanese citizens during the 1970s and 1980s.

North Korean officials, in Seoul for Cabinet-level talks on inter-Korean economic cooperation, hailed their willingness to come back to the table. "Our agreement to the six-party talks is a product of our efforts to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully," said chief North Korean delegate Kim Ryong Song. "It also means that our position is right and just."

However, diplomats are hoping for new pressure on Pyongyang through ongoing investigations in Pakistan, where North Korea is believed to have acquired much of its nuclear knowledge. Pakistani officials have said that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, admitted to selling nuclear secrets to North Korea as well as Iran and Libya. As more details there emerge, it may help US intelligence pinpoint the source of what is believed to be Pyongyang's second, secret program to develop weapons-grade enriched uranium.