N. Korea Pledges To Cooperate

North Korea has repeated its pledge to rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and accept U.N. inspections if the international standoff over its atomic program is resolved smoothly, the North's official news agency said Sunday.

"If the nuclear issue finds a satisfactory solution, we will return to the NPT and accept the (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspection," Paek Nam Sun was quoted by the North's official Korea Central News Agency.

"We will have neither reason nor necessity to possess even a single nuke if the U.S. agrees to completely remove its nuclear threat to (North Korea) and opens the relations of peaceful coexistence with" the North, Paek said in comments Friday at an Asian regional meeting in Laos as reported by KCNA.

The remarks echo what North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a visiting South Korean minister in Pyongyang in June.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill stressed differences remained with North Korea on a resolution of the 2 1/2-year-old nuclear standoff, which has raised regional tension and concerns that it could spark an arms race in East Asia.

"Today was the first opportunity, really, to take something that could become the final document and try to see if we can reach agreement on it," Hill told reporters of the draft proposed by China.

He would not provide details, but said "we think it's a good basis" for negotiation. No end date has been set for the talks, which began Tuesday. Hill said he doubted they would conclude Sunday.

Six nations: China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas, are holding talks in Beijing that began Tuesday aimed at resolving the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear program that erupted in late 2002.

Paek said the six-nation talks should be fruitful if denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is discussed under the principles of respecting sovereignty and equality.

The talks have focused on a definition of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The North says that should mean removal of alleged U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea as well dissolving the American "nuclear umbrella" of security guarantees to its longtime ally. Washington and Seoul both deny the U.S. has nuclear weapons in South Korea.

North Korea "has exercised its utmost patience and flexibility in an effort to seek a peaceful negotiated solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," Paek said, according to KCNA.

He said the North proposed at the talks that the United States and North Korea end their hostile relations and establish a system for peaceful coexistence. He also said Pyongyang wanted to abolish nuclear weapons from both Koreas, bar entry of nuclear weapons or materials from outside, and get a promise from Washington not to use atomic weapons against the North.

"As much as I would like to talk about progress, you know it's hard to talk about progress until you actually have an agreement," Hill said.

The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, citing anonymous sources, said delegates "roughly agreed" on a draft document that mentions a safety guarantee and economic assistance for North Korea along with a promise of normalized relations with the United States. It does not detail how the North would abandon its nuclear program or what it would get in return, the newspaper said.