KOREA: North Korean generals have ordered their forces onto a heightened alert ahead of a crucial international meeting in Washington today which could decide whether the US adopts a policy of conciliation or steps up its nuclear stand-off with Pyongyang.
The top brass of the North's army met at the weekend to prepare for a possible worsening of the crisis, which the state media said had entered a "very serious and unpredictable" stage.
Just how serious is likely to become apparent in the next few days when the US, South Korea and Japan will try to thrash out a common response to the North's reactivation last month of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. The plant, capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, had been mothballed under a 1994 deal.
The best hope for peace appears to be a compromise plan that was fine-tuned by South Korea's national security council on Saturday, and will be presented during today's talks in Washington.
It will require Mr Bush to guarantee personally North Korea's security and a resumption of its oil supplies, which were cut off last month. In return, Pyongyang would be asked to close the Yongbyon plant and scrap a uranium-enrichment programme.
According to South Korean newspapers, the deal would be backed by international aid and security guarantees from China and Russia.
To give time for diplomacy to work, the executive board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which also meets today, is expected to give the North one month to allow for the return of the nuclear inspectors who were kicked out of Yongbyon last week. If this fails, the IAEA is likely to take the case to the UN Security Council.
The North has repeatedly said that it is willing to negotiate, and yesterday the government appeared to accept the outline of the South's plans. "There is no reason why the US should not accept the proposal, the best way for a peaceful solution," it said in a statement on the state news agency.
It is unclear, however, whether Mr Bush will swallow such a compromise.