N. Korea Offers To Halt Nukes

North Korea on Thursday proposed "the comprehensive stopping of nuclear activities," a Chinese government spokesman said. The conditions were unclear, and he said the details were still being discussed among the six governments meeting in the Chinese capital.

The offer, which could herald major progress, came a day after South Korea offered the North a conditional compensation package that officials said included energy aid for the power-starved country.

The North had made a similar proposal through diplomatic channels in December. But this version, offered in the middle of delicate talks about the North's nuclear ambitions, appeared the most significant breakthrough since the Washington-Pyongyang stalemate began in October 2002.

"The various parties welcomed the proposition from the North Korean side for the comprehensive stopping of nuclear activities," Chinese spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a briefing. "As for the details and specific arrangements for stopping the nuclear activities, it is still being discussed among the various parties."

Russia's top delegate said, however, that a "gap" remained before the standoff could be solved fully. A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Beijing said he had no information about the proposal.

The announcement came during a second round of Beijing-based talks on the North's nuclear program. Participating in the meetings were the Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

The United States wants an immediate dismantling of the North's nuclear program. Pyongyang has long demanded aid and security guarantees before it begins to do so — a position backed by China, which has always included the North's security in the equation.

North Korea says it feels threatened because the Bush administration has adopted a doctrine of preemptive war and labeled the North part of an "axis of evil."

The Bush administration has resisted North Korea's calls for a formal non-aggression pact, but has also indicated it would be willing to provide other forms of guarantee. The White House has said repeatedly it has no intention of invading the heavily militarized North.

Liu said China "agreed with North Korea's requirement for reasonable security guarantees and to give North Korea a normal development environment."

His comments came immediately after Alexander Losyukov, head of the Russian delegation and his country's deputy foreign minister, said North Korea showed "readiness" to abolish its nuclear weapons program.

According to Losyukov, the North would abolish its military atomic program but maintain a "peaceful" nuclear capability, Xinhua said. That's a major step — but one somewhat less than what China described.

"North Korea is not ready to drop all its nuclear programs. It's not realistic to ask them to do it," Losyukov said. "North Korea is ready to drop its nuclear defense program, but some countries are not satisfied with that."

He said disagreements still endure between Washington and Pyongyang over exactly what will be eliminated. "A gap remains," Losyukov said. "We have certain doubts that it will be possible to remove it during this session of talks."

North Korea and the United States have been at odds over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions for years and especially since October 2002, when Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said the North told him it had a secret weapons program based on enriched uranium.

North Korea publicly denies it has a uranium program in addition to its known plutonium-based program, but it brandishes the threat of what it vaguely describes as its "nuclear deterrent" in an effort to extract concessions.

The U.S. cut off fuel shipments, leading North Korea to kick out international inspectors and vow to resume reprocessing fuel rods to get plutonium for weapons.

The North has since admitted to having nuclear weapons and has threatened to test one. U.S. intelligence estimates that the North has a missile ready for testing that could be capable of reaching the Western United States.

Thursday's meetings followed a rare, lengthy one-on-one session between high-level officials from Washington and Pyongyang — the two key players in the dispute.

Throughout the nuclear dispute, the Bush administration has resisted North Korea's calls for one-on-one talks, insisting on dialogue involving regional powers instead.

Neither side gave details of Wednesday's meeting between Kelly and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, but the State Department described it as "useful."

The South Korean news agency Yonhap, quoting an unnamed diplomatic source in Beijing, reported that the U.S. and North Korean delegates had a second bilateral talk. The talk took place after Thursday's plenary session, Yonhap said, but the source did not reveal the place and how long it lasted. South Korean officials in Beijing could not confirm it took place.

In December, the impoverished North demanded economic aid and other U.S. concessions in return for a freeze. Washington said that Pyongyang must not only freeze, but start dismantling, its nuclear programs first.

This week's meeting is the second round of six-party talks. The first one in August, scheduled for three days only, yielded little more than a vague promise to meet again. Parties have made this meeting open-ended, hoping for more progress.

"I think it's realistic optimism," said Bill Tow, a professor of international relations at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. "They wouldn't have come together at this juncture unless they felt there was a reasonable chance there might be some progress made."