South Korea promises electricity to North

SEOUL -- South Korea announced yesterday that if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons, it would supply North Korea with enough electricity to replace two nuclear reactors that would have been provided under a now scuttled 1994 agreement between North Korea and the Clinton administration.

The offer, which South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong Young called a ''last chance" for the government in Pyongyang, was detailed by South Korean officials as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here last night for talks on the last leg of her East Asia tour.

The South Korean proposal, advanced by Chung to North Korean leader Kim Jung Il on June 17, had been previously described only in vague terms to US officials. A senior US official traveling with Rice said US officials were interested to learn more about the idea and wanted to figure out if it could be folded into a US proposal advanced in June 2004 at six-nation talks to end the impasse over North Korea's weapons.

That proposal offered a vague plan to study North Korea's energy needs, and the official acknowledged that the South Korean idea provided a new level of specificity for Pyongyang.

Rice had a working dinner with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon last night and plans additional talks today before flying back to Washington. She flew here from Tokyo and held talks in Beijing, with much of the discussion focused on how to persuade North Korea to give up its weapons.

The South Korean plan is believed to have been a factor in Pyongyang's decision to return to the negotiating table after boycotting the talks for more than a year. Early last month, North Korean officials told US officials they were ready to return to the talks, but they did not agree to a date until Rice arrived in Beijing Saturday.

The new electricity could be delivered by 2008 after infrastructure is built, Chung said. He said North Korea, which has a decrepit electrical grid and desperately needs energy assistance, has not directly responded to the proposal.

Bush administration officials have said they are pleased Chung told Kim that the $5 billion project to build light-water reactors in North Korea was dead, because they felt that it still posed a proliferation risk.

Clinton administration officials have privately said they agreed to the plan in 1994 only because they thought the North Korean government would collapse before the project was completed.

South Korea also said it would immediately give the government in Pyongyang a large infusion of aid, including 500,000 tons of rice, raw materials for shoes, clothing and soap, assistance in renovating mines and help in accelerating the development of rail lines at an industrial park.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo, Rice supported the South Korean agreement, saying it responded to a ''humanitarian disaster" in North Korea.

Meanwhile, Rice said she backed Japan's efforts to press for answers on North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens as part of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, even as China and South Korea said the issue was a bilateral dispute.