A South Korean delegation traveled to its isolated northern neighbor today to demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea repeated that it would not halt its nuclear efforts unless the US government signs a non-aggression treat something the Bush administration has refused to do.
The inter-Korean talks, held in Pyongyang and scheduled to last until Tuesday, come amid heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula.
In a meeting between the United States and North Korea in Beijing last week, a senior US official said North Korea claimed to have atomic weapons that it might test, sell or use, depending on US actions.
"We will make clear our firm position that North Korea should not have nuclear weapons," said Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, South Korea's chief delegate, before leaving for this week's talks in Pyongyang. "We will focus on this issue ... and will try to persuade the North to change its stance."
In a commentary carried by North Korean radio, Pyongyang's official daily Rodong Sinmun said the North was determined to arm itself with "a physical means of deterrence" because the United States refuses to sign a nonaggression treaty.
Washington has said, however, that it would consider some sort of written assurance that it wouldn't invade.
"If Washington does not give us a legal guarantee that it will not take military actions, including use of nuclear weapons, against us, we have no other option but to do everything possible for our self-defense," Rodong said.
In the Pyongyang talks, Jeong said he would remind North Korea of a 1992 inter-Korean agreement to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
Seoul officials were encouraged by the North's willingness to hold the talks after canceling previous Cabinet-level meetings earlier this month. North Korea also halted a joint tourism project last week, citing fears of SARS.
But Jeong acknowledged that the talks were being held "in a very difficult situation," and that the dispute "is going to take a considerable amount of time to resolve."