North Korea wants world to run atomic plant

North Korea's eagerness to make progress at nuclear talks appears genuine enough to involve a specific proposal to ensure its pursuit of a civilian nuclear plan is proliferation-safe, key US figures said yesterday.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson also said senior North Korean officials told his delegation in Pyongyang that it would return to the six-party talks in the latter part of the first week of November as promised.

The fuel cycle refers to the handling of a range of nuclear materials not only for power plants but also atomic weapons.

North Korea has secretly processed such fuels for decades and is believed to have built weapons, in violation of several international agreements and non-proliferation regimes. Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations who has kept contacts with Pyongyang, met senior North Korean officials in Pyongyang last week, including Kim Yong-nam, the number two figure in the country's hierarchy, and First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju.

Kang is a close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the key architect of Pyongyang's nuclear diplomacy. North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China are expected to meet for their fifth round of talks in early November in Beijing.

The deputy head of Richardson's delegation, A.K. Namkung, said Pyongyang was willing to let other countries be involved in a civilian nuclear plan to addresss proliferation concerns.

North Korea has demanded the supply of lightwater reactors as the initial condition for dismantling all its nuclear programmes.

But Washington is averse to the supply of any reactors even with all available safeguards measures firmly in place, including Pyongyang's return to the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and its acceptance of inter-national inspectors.

Richardson and Namkung said they were given deep access to nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, about 100 km north of the capital, but were kept away from the critical part of the complex, the reprocessing lab where fabrication of spent nuclear fuel to obtain materials for weapons is believed to take place.

North Korea declared for the first time in February that it had nuclear weapons.

Richardson said North Korea's commitment to resolving the nuclear crisis seemed genuine, and it was helped in large part by the US administration's willingness to negotiate.

South Korea has said the top priority in the next round of talks is full disclosure by the North of its nuclear programmes.