3RD LD: N. Korea willing to disable nuke facilities by year-end

BEIJING, July 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH FRESH COMMENTS)

North Korea's top nuclear negotiator expressed his country's willingness to declare all of its nuclear programs and disable its nuclear facilities by the end of this year in a meeting Wednesday with his South Korean counterpart in Beijing.

South Korea's Chun Yung Woo told reporters that North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan made the remarks in their bilateral talks on the sidelines of a meeting in Beijing of top delegates to the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The meeting between Chun and Kim took place as the multilateral negotiations between chief negotiators were held in the afternoon to discuss the initial denuclearization steps being taken by North Korea as well as future steps.

Top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said Wednesday morning he hopes the six parties can agree on a timetable for Pyongyang's nuclear disablement.

Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said ahead of the six-way talks that he hopes the countries will reach a consensus that North Korea should declare all its nuclear programs and disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year.

Japanese chief delegate Kenichiro Sasae said in the evening the six parties have yet to come to an agreement over the time frame, but noted that he got the impression North Korea was prepared to discuss fully the next steps it is to implement.

Hill told reporters before leaving a Beijing hotel in the morning the six countries -- North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- are in the ''general vicinity'' over the schedule.

''We understand that we want to get these phase-two things done more or less by the end of this year,'' he said.

Hill was referring to the stage in a Feb. 13 six-way agreement which requires North Korea to declare all its nuclear programs and disable all existing nuclear facilities.

''So maybe we could try to agree on getting these next-phase items done in calendar year '07'' during talks from Wednesday, Hill said.

In separate comments to reporters in the morning, Chun indicated he thinks the year-end time frame would be appropriate as ''a plan for measures can be possible if we have a deadline.''

''This is not a question of whether it is technically possible, but a question of North Korea's political will,'' said the special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs of the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.

A Japanese government source, however, said Japan believes setting a deadline may not be helpful.

''It is desirable to implement them at an early date, but we don't think a specific deadline should be set at the outset,'' the source said.

The talks among the chief delegates of the six parties, the first in four months, were held for about an hour and a half at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in the early afternoon.

They followed a series of bilateral discussions from Tuesday, including three sessions between Hill and Kim shortly after their arrival in Beijing.

Two of those sessions took place at their respective embassies -- the first time the chief representatives of the two countries have visited each other's embassy since the six-party process began in 2003.

The multilateral negotiations follow North Korea's halting of operations at its key nuclear facilities in Yongbyon over the weekend, marking the first concrete step toward denuclearization under the six-party deal.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur that his agency's inspect

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