US may offer non-aggression assurance to North Korea

The offer to meet in Beijing -- no date was specified -- was conveyed last week to visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo who was asked to inform the North Koreans, US officials told the daily.

As a condition for the meeting, however, the United States wants it to be followed almost immediately by multilateral talks that include South Korea, Japan and possibly Russia, the officials added.

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They said that at the broader, multilateral meeting, the United States would formally unveil a plan for ending the crisis, which would open with discussion on how it could reassure Pyongyang it will not come under US military attack.

Once that issue is settled, the meeting could move on to what one US official called a "whole gamut" of issues between the United States and North Korea, including providing energy and food aid if the North Koreans meet a series of tough conditions, including progress on human rights.

The United States up to now has resisted Pyongyang's insistence on one-on-one talks, calling instead on a multilateral venue that would include South Korea, China and Japan.

China hosted a first round of talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions in April and has been trying to broker a second round amid claims that Pyongyang has finished processing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, enough to make about six nuclear devices.

An unnamed White House official quoted by the Post disputed the notion that the US administration had shifted in its public refusal to negotiate directly with North Korea.

"As we have said many times, we will not submit to blackmail or grant inducements for the North to live up to its obligations," the US official said.

US President George W. Bush on Monday warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il that developing nuclear weapons would "alienate" him from the world, after new revelations on Pyongyang's program.

But Bush shrugged off reports that Pyongyang had opened a second plant to process plutonium, concealed to avoid detection by US satellites.

"The desire by the North Koreans to convince the world that they are in the process of developing a nuclear arsenal is nothing new, we have known that for a while," Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Bush said he still believed the nuclear crisis could be solved diplomatically.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a new round of trilateral talks among the United States, China and North Korea were likely "within the next few weeks".

"I think there is a sense of urgency," he told British reporters late Monday after meeting China's leaders.

"There have been talks just recently between China, America and North Korea. There is a desire then to have further talks, I think you will find within the next few weeks, to reconvene those talks."

China hosted a first round of talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions in April and has been trying to broker a second round amid claims Pyongyang has finished processing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, enough to make about six nuclear devices.

The United States wants multilateral talks that also bring South Korea, China and Japan to the table. Pyongyang's hardline Stalinist regime prefers one-on-one bargaining with Washington.

Blair said the talks must be extended to include South and Japan.

"And I believe, as I said earlier, that that has got to be extended to include Japan and South Korea, at least at some stage of the process," he said.

He added that he believed that dialogue would eventually be successful in solving the standoff, and that was largely due to pressure from China.

"They key thing that has changed in respect of North Korea is there is now pressure here in the region, from China, from Japan, from South Korea -- and the pressure from China is particularly important -- in bringing home to the North Korean regime that they have to change their position on this nuclear weapons programme."

China has stepped up its diplomacy in recent weeks, sending an envoy to North Korea with a letter from President Hu Jintao, reportedly urging a resumption of talks.

The envoy, vice foreign minister Dai Bingguo, Monday returned to Beijing from Washington after briefing leaders there.