LEAD: U.S. open to another round of 3-way nuclear talks

Japan Policy & Politics, July 22, 2003

WASHINGTON, July 16 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE QUOTES, INFO)

The United States is ready to hold another round of talks with North Korea and China on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions on condition they be expanded later into five-way talks including Japan and South Korea, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.

''I don't think that we had ever ruled it out,'' Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton said about the possibility of another round of three-way talks following one held in Beijing in April.

''If there is a way to start at three and go to five, we are open to suggestions on it,'' Bolton said in an interview with Kyodo News and other Japanese news organizations.

He said any multilateral talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program should take place as soon as possible, hopefully in August, ''because of its level of seriousness.''

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier in the day he expects to see diplomatic developments ''in the very near future'' on the nuclear standoff with North Korea.

''The diplomatic track is alive and well, and I expect to see some developments along that track in the very near future,'' Powell told reporters.

The nuclear crisis erupted last October, when North Korea told U.S. officials in Pyongyang that it has a secret program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

Since the China-brokered three-way talks in April, Washington and Pyongyang have been unable to agree on the format for any continuation of the Beijing talks.

North Korea insists it will speak only to the U.S., while Washington is urging Pyongyang to accept requests by Japan and South Korea that they also be included in the talks.

In the interview, Bolton reiterated the U.S. policy of rejecting separate bilateral discussions with North Korea on the sidelines of the five-way talks.

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea are now rapidly growing as U.N.-based North Korean diplomats told the U.S. last week that Pyongyang has finished reprocessing all of the 8,000 spent fuel rods stored at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

Bolton, however, was skeptical about the North Korean claim. ''We have our own measures for judging that, and that is not what we judge at this point,'' he said.

Bolton voiced concerns about North Korea's efforts to develop a ballistic missile with greater range and accuracy.

''That brings into threat of attack by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons other countries within whatever the range of the missile is, and that particularly is Japan,'' he said.

Bolton also stressed the need for the international community to tighten surveillance of North Korea's sales of weapons of mass destruction and illegal drug trafficking as they are Pyongyang's main tools to earn foreign currency.

He said he is particularly concerned about exports of missile-related technologies by North Korea to Iran.

''Even though the North Koreans continue a moratorium on test launches from the (Korean) peninsula, the Iranians continue to make test launches, and we are quite worried about the cooperation between those two countries,'' Bolton said.