2ND LD: U.S., N. Korea hold talks on options for breaking nuke deadlock

GENEVA, March 13 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH START OF TALKS)

Top U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators began talks in Geneva on Thursday over options for resolving a snag holding up progress in the six-way process aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs.

At the center of the talks between Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan is North Korea's promise to make a full disclosure of its nuclear programs.

''We need all the elements there and we need them to be expressed correctly,'' Hill told reporters at a Geneva hotel before the talks, referring to the North Korean nuclear declaration.

''We can be flexible on format, but we cannot be flexible on the fact that we need a complete and correct declaration,'' he said.

Six countries reached a breakthrough agreement last year under which North Korea would disable its key nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic benefits.

But the talks stalled after North Korea failed to give the full accounting of its nuclear programs by the end-of-2007 deadline set under the agreement involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

''I think it's pretty critical to get moving on this now,'' Hill said.

At the core of the problem are two issues -- North Korea's alleged program to enrich weapons-grade uranium and U.S. concerns that the country shared nuclear technology with Syria.

The United States is calling for a declaration that would explain these two issues, including their past activities. North Korea has denied currently engaging in such activities.

Among the options that have emerged over the past several weeks to bridge differences includes a plan to address the contentious issues in a separate document when Pyongyang declares its nuclear programs.

That plan is intended to make it easier for North Korea to submit the list while keeping it acceptable to the others, particularly the United States.

Another plan, proposed by China, is to essentially agree to disagree, each stating its own views as China and the United States did when they issued the Shanghai Communique in 1972.

Meanwhile, signs indicate North Korea is hesitating about admitting to its past nuclear proliferation activities because of its experience with Japan after it admitted in 2002 to the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents.

A wave of negative public opinion emerged in Japan after Pyongyang admitted its agents abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The countries' ties deteriorated, and they are still apart over how many kidnapping victims there were and what happened to some of them.

North Korean diplomats expressed concern about the recurrence of such a development to former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry and Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, when they visited Pyongyang last month, according to people knowledgeable about the meeting.

One of the North Korean diplomats said Pyongyang is worried the United States will take punitive actions against North Korea should it admit to such proliferation activities, they said.

The talks between Hill and Kim in Geneva follow one on Feb. 19 in Beijing. While Hill traveled to the Chinese capital on March 1 hoping to meet with Kim, he was stood up by his North Korean counterpart at that time.

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