North Korea stonewalls demands to give up nuclear weapons

South Korea demanded Sunday that North Korea abandon any atomic weapons development, but Northern negotiators in Pyongyang stonewalled the nuclear discussion.

Chief North Korean delegate Kim Ryong Song refused to confirm a claim made during talks last week with U.S. and Chinese officials in Beijing that North Korea is making nuclear weapons, and instead sought to steer Sunday's Cabinet-level talks toward inter-Korean economic projects, Seoul officials said.

Washington believes North Korea has one or two atomic bombs and may be trying to make more. The North has disputed that claim, saying its nuclear program is meant to generate much-needed electricity.

Possession of nuclear weapons would be a "serious violation" of a 1992 inter-Korean agreement to keep the peninsula nuclear-free, South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun reminded North Korea, according to South Korean government spokesman Shin Eun-sang.

"We made it clear that we can never accept North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons," Shin said Sunday, according to South Korean pool reports from Pyongyang. "We emphasized that the North should dismantle nuclear weapons, if it had any, as well as its nuclear facilities."

Five-member delegation

Jeong is leading a five-member South Korean delegation to Pyongyang in the first high-level talks between the Koreas since President Roh Moo-hyun took office in February. Foreign journalists were not allowed to cover the event.

The talks resumed Monday.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il called for stronger military might during a visit Sunday to an unidentified "front-line unit." The official news agency KCNA said Kim was satisfied that his soldiers were ready to repulse "any surprise attack of the enemy at one stroke" and gave "guidelines in further increasing the unit's combat capability."

Pyongyang, which President Bush has dubbed part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and prewar Iraq, has accused the United States of planning an invasion after the war in Iraq is over.

Today, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, quoting unidentified diplomatic sources, reported that North Korea has proposed giving up its nuclear programs in return for a nonaggression treaty and normalization in "political and economic relations with the United States."

The Bush administration has ruled out such a treaty, but U.S. officials have said some form of written security guarantee could be possible. U.S. officials did not reveal the North's proposal.

A senior U.S. official has said that during last week's talks in Beijing that North Korea threatened to test, sell or use atomic weapons, depending on Washington's actions.

On Sunday, North Korea would say only that it made a "new, bold" proposal to the United States during the Beijing talks, Shin said, and instead tried to discuss linking cross-border railways and other economic projects with South Korea.

The projects are part of a reconciliation process that grew out of a historic North-South summit in June 2000.

In Tokyo, a senior U.S. envoy told Japanese officials Saturday that Washington was examining the new North Korean proposal to settle the nuclear dispute.

Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met with Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, but Kelly refused to discuss the details of the North Korean proposal before consulting with officials in Washington, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials said North Korea told Kelly in Beijing that it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods -- a key step in producing nuclear weapons that could yield several more bombs within months.

The claim is not backed up by U.S. intelligence, officials said, and some have speculated that Pyongyang may be bluffing. Last week, President Bush said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was simply playing "the old blackmail game."

The White House has said it will confer with allies about possibly seeking U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Pyongyang says it would consider international sanctions a "declaration of war."

Last week's talks in Beijing were the first high-level U.S.-North Korean contact since nuclear tensions spiked in October, when Washington confronted Pyongyang about a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact.

North Korea subsequently withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last fall, kicked out international inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear complex and took steps to restart frozen nuclear facilities. It even threatened to abandon the armistice ending the 1950-53 Korean War.

Washington has said it wants the "verifiable and irreversible" elimination of the North's nuclear weapons programs. North Korea instead has pushed for a nonaggression treaty.

instead tried to discuss linking cross-border railways and other economic projects with South Korea.

The projects are part of a reconciliation process that grew out of a historic North-South summit in June 2000.

In Tokyo, a senior U.S. envoy told Japanese officials Saturday that Washington was examining the new North Korean proposal to settle the nuclear dispute.

Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met with Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, but Kelly refused to discuss the details of the North Korean proposal before consulting with officials in Washington, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials said North Korea told Kelly in Beijing that it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods -- a key step in producing nuclear weapons that could yield several more bombs within months.

The claim is not backed up by U.S. intelligence, officials said, and some have speculated that Pyongyang may be bluffing. Last week, President Bush said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was simply playing "the old blackmail game."

The White House has said it will confer with allies about possibly seeking U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Pyongyang says it would consider international sanctions a "declaration of war."

Last week's talks in Beijing were the first high-level U.S.-North Korean contact since nuclear tensions spiked in October, when Washington confronted Pyongyang about a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact.

North Korea subsequently withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last fall, kicked out international inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear complex and took steps to restart frozen nuclear facilities. It even threatened to abandon the armistice ending the 1950-53 Korean War.

Washington has said it wants the "verifiable and irreversible" elimination of the North's nuclear weapons programs. North Korea instead has pushed for a nonaggression treaty.