North Korea seeks more plutonium for nuclear arms

A North Korean official said his country will soon unload fuel rods from a nuclear reactor to make plutonium for weapons, seeking to pressure Washington into direct talks, a visiting US scholar said yesterday.

Selig Harrison, back from a visit to North Korea, told a Beijing news conference he had met Kim Kye-gwan, Pyongyang's top negotiator at stalled six-party talks on its nuclear ambitions.

The US State Department warned North Korea against provocative actions and urged it to return to the talks.

Harrison, director of the Asia Programme at the Centre for International Policy in Washington, said North Korea planned to unload the rods from its Yongbyon reactor "beginning during this fall (autumn), not later than the end of the year" - over half a year earlier than the reactor's fuel cycle technically requires.

The six-party talks, which also include China, South Korea, Russia and Japan, have been in limbo since November. North Korea refuses to return to the table while Washington curbs North Korea's international financial activities.

Harrison said he had spent six hours talking with Kim during a visit between last Tuesday and yesterday. Kim told Harrison that North Korea wanted evidence that Washington would not pursue "regime change" to oust Pyongyang's hardline Communist regime.

North Korean officials hinted they may agree to suspend missile tests, freeze the nuclear programme and not sell any nuclear weapons or fissile materials abroad, if the United States offered concessions, Harrison said.

Washington has refused bilateral negotiations with North Korea, except on the sidelines of the six-party talks. US officials say the financial restrictions are to deter drug trafficking and currency counterfeiting by Pyongyang, but Harrison said they were preventing legitimate trade.