North Korea calls for 'national cooperation' with South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea called for "national cooperation" with South Korea on Sunday as Seoul prepared to send special envoys to Pyongyang to help defuse tensions over the communist North's nuclear development.

The North's acceptance of the envoys could signal an easing in its refusal to have outside help in ending the crisis, which Pyongyang has insisted is a matter between it and Washington.

The United States, which supports Seoul's diplomatic efforts, has pushed for international intervention and reiterated that position Sunday by saying North Korea's nuclear program is a danger to Asia and the world.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States has always been honest with the reclusive communist nation and is the biggest donor of humanitarian aid to the impoverished North, but North Korea must prove it can be trusted.

That trust, he said, hinges on the North ceasing plans to reactivate its nuclear programs, in line with a global anti-nuclear treaty Pyongyang abandoned earlier this month.

"The United States is willing to talk to North Korea about how it will meet its obligations to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program," Powell told the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Pyongyang's behavior affects the stability of both the immediate region and the world," he said.

South Korea, which sends two envoys to Pyongyang today, has repeatedly urged the North to rescind its withdrawal from the anti-nuclear treaty and wants Pyongyang to restore U.N. safeguards at nuclear facilities and suspend activity there.

'Sunshine policy'

The envoys represent outgoing President Kim Dae-jung and his successor, Roh Moo-hyun, who both support a so-called "sunshine policy" of engaging the North and have called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

The North, too, has recently stressed inter-Korean cooperation, apparently trying to drive a wedge in the alliance between Seoul and Washington, which is South Korea's closest ally and keeps 37,000 soldiers.

"Now that the U.S. imperialists' hostile moves against (North Korea) have reached the extremes, national cooperation is the way of saving the nation and the way of patriotism," the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

On Sunday, an American U-2 spy plane crashed in South Korea, injuring three people on the ground. The Air Force pilot ejected safely and was treated for minor injuries at a hospital at a U.S. base in Osan, 30 miles southeast of Seoul, Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Toni Tones said.

Also on Sunday, the two Koreas exchanged names of candidates for reunions Feb. 20-25 of families divided by their sealed border, the sixth such reunion since a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.

The North is demanding a nonaggression treaty with the United States. Washington has ruled out a formal treaty, but hinted that it could provide a written security guarantee.

Powell, in Switzerland, repeated that the United States does not intend to attack North Korea and that it will continue to provide aid to the country, which has suffered famine and economic collapse.

"North Korea's policies have dragged its people into a dark, cold, hungry hell," Powell said.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency has indefinitely postponed a meeting of its 35-nation board of directors to discuss whether to refer the Korean nuclear crisis to the Security Council.

Washington has pushing for the matter to go to the council, which could further pressure the North with international sanctions. But South Korea had urged the Vienna-based IAEA to postpone its possible meeting, saying it could complicate the mission of its envoys.

The North has said that it would consider sanctions a declaration of war.

A top Russian diplomat urged North Korea and the United States on Sunday to negotiate an end to their standoff and warned that North Korea is not making hollow threats.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, who visited Pyongyang last week, said North Korean officials are closely watching developments in Iraq and believe the United States will target their country next.

"The (North) Koreans told us they are fully determined to defend their sovereignty and resist further blackmail and threats from the United States," he said. "These declarations aren't just empty noise."

Speaking by telephone Saturday, President Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to cooperate to resolve the dispute peacefully.

Russia, along with China, has relatively close ties with North Korea and is seen as a player in either resolving the dispute or brokering talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

The current dispute began in October with a U.S. announcement that North Korea had admitting having a secretive nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact with Washington.