NORTH KOREA: North Korea has proposed a plan that would "ultimately deal with" their nuclear capability and missile activities but wanted something major in return, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.
North Korea put the plan forward during three-way talks in Beijing last week with the United States and China, at which US sources have said North Korea admitted it had nuclear weapons, an admission likely to make it more difficult to resolve the six-month stand-off over its nuclear capabilities.
"The North Koreans acknowledged a number of things that they were doing and in effect said these are now up for further discussion," Mr Powell said in Washington.
"They did put forward a plan that would ultimately deal with their nuclear capability and their missile activities but they of course expect something considerable in return," he said. "We are studying that plan."
Earlier in Beijing, a Chinese official briefing EU diplomats said North Korea had offered to scrap its nuclear programme if Washington dropped its hostile attitude towards the country.
Pyongyang also offered to suspend ballistic missile tests and stop missile exports, according to EU diplomats reporting on the briefing. North Korean negotiators told their US counterparts nuclear inspectors would be allowed into their country if Washington dropped its hostile attitude.
It was unclear why China held the briefing for about 20 EU diplomats, a rare occurrence.
President George Bush said last week North Korea was "back to the old blackmail game". He and other US officials stressed that the US would not be threatened or intimidated by North Korea.
Mr Powell, however, did not repeat the long-standing US position that it would not offer North Korea inducements to give up its nuclear programmes, which Washington fears could be used to threaten South Korea and the 37,000 US troops based there, as well as other states in the region.
On Friday US officials said North Korea had made proposals but suggested these largely repeated things Pyongyang had demanded in the past.
The North Koreans "talked at some points about giving up nuclear weapons, about doing that in return for extra deals that would not be acceptable", said one official.
This official said the proposals included demands for "everything the North Koreans ever wanted . . . There was an element to the talks of attempts to threaten and intimidate and elements of wanting to buy a Rolex."
While he and other officials seemed sceptical, they said they would analyse the North Korean proposals.
Mr Powell described last week's talks as "quite useful" and he played down suggestions that North Korea had threatened to test nuclear weapons, saying they never used that exact word.
"It was useful to get it all out on the table and see where we go from here," Mr Powell said. "They've never used the word 'testing'.
"They said that it is a kind of capability that one can display in one way or another . . . and now that Assistant Secretary (James) Kelly is back we will be spending quite a bit of time going over his notes and his impressions on what he heard," he added.
Mr Powell thanked China for having been a "full participant" in last week's Beijing talks, a comment that appeared designed in part to play down comments by analysts suggesting that China would be largely a bystander.