Seoul Seeks Moscow's Aid In Nukes Row

South Korea honed a compromise plan Saturday to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff and said the crisis was closer to ending, but the communist nation warned the situation was still "serious and unpredictable."

The proposed settlement was expected to dominate a joint strategy meeting of South Korea, the United States and Japan early next week. Details were scant, but media reports suggested the proposal would require concessions from both Washington and Pyongyang.

Seoul's diplomatic offensive, under scrutiny Saturday at a National Security Council meeting, underlines its new drive to mediate between the United States, its key ally, and neighboring North Korea, its erstwhile enemy. But crafting a deal won't be easy.

The United States refuses to talk until the North scraps its nuclear programs. And North Korea insists Washington must take the first step by signing a nonaggression pact promising not to attack the isolated country.

"There is no reason why the U.S. should not accept the proposal, the best way for peaceful solution," the North's state-run news agency KCNA said. "The present situation is very serious and unpredictable."

Still, officials in Seoul were upbeat about a diplomatic solution.

"We are getting closer to finding an answer," a senior government official said on condition of anonymity after Saturday's security meeting.

In past crises with the North, Seoul played a subordinate role to the United States. Now many South Koreans want their government to help chart the course of talks and assume a more equal footing with Washington.

Being heard out by the United States is also seen as soothing rocky relations with South Korea amid rising public resentment over 37,000 U.S. troops based here.

"The United States will be able to save a major strategic partnership by redefining South Korea's role in seeking a peaceful solution in this diplomatic maze," The Korea Herald said in its Saturday editorial.

The trilateral meeting - Monday and Tuesday in Washington - is part of the allies' regular forum for coordinating policy toward the communist North. This time, they will focus on bringing North Korea's nuclear weapons programs under international controls.

The communist North alarmed the world in October by admitting to a U.S. envoy it had a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons program, in violation of a 1994 accord.

As punishment, the United States and its allies halted oil supplies promised in the agreement. North Korea then announced it would reactivate its older plutonium-based nuclear program, saying it needs to restart a reactor to generate electricity.

The United States says the plutonium-based program, at the Yongbyon complex north of Pyongyang, could be used to build nuclear weapons. And Washington has indicated North Korea may already have two nuclear weapons and can build several more in short order.

One South Korean compromise being considered calls for the United States to resume oil shipments to North Korea, in return for it abandoning its uranium nuclear development, media reported Saturday, citing an unnamed government source.

Giving the North oil removes any justification for its restarting a nuclear complex to produce electricity, the reports said. A government spokesman could not immediately comment.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher indicated Friday that Washington would not compromise. Arguing that North Korea already agreed to a nuclear freeze in 1994, he said, "We have no intention of sitting down and bargaining again."

In Beijing, the North's ambassador to China described the situation as "getting worse and worse," but indicated Pyongyang would welcome a mediator.

Meanwhile, Seoul has boosted efforts to rally international pressure on the North. South Korean diplomats are in Russia this weekend soliciting support, and they visited China earlier this week.

After arriving in Moscow on Saturday, South Korean deputy foreign minister Kim Hang-kyung said that the United States, China, Japan and Russia "have a joint goal" while addressing North Korea's nuclear program.

"They need to resolve this situation peacefully," he told reporters. "Our government thinks that the role of the Russian government in the process of peaceful resolution of this problem is very important and constructive."

Moscow and Beijing, two of North Korea's traditional allies, want a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. But so far, they have stopped short of declaring that they will aggressively pressure the North to give up its weapons programs.

Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said Saturday that both the United States and North Korea should search for a solution in a "calm and constructive way," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

"Threats and sanctions are counterproductive," he said.

Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, welcomed Moscow's mediation.

"We think Russia has significant influence in Pyongyang and we are hoping that by working together we can persuade the North Koreans to pull back from the brink and to come back into compliance with their obligations not to develop nuclear weapons," the Interfax news agency quoted Vershbow as saying.

After next week's talks in Washington, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly heads Seoul and discussions with South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun.

Roh intends to unveil his own compromise plan in hopes the crisis can be defused before he takes office Feb. 25.

South Korea must carefully juggle diplomacy between the United States, its key defense ally and largest trading partner, and North Korea, which has agreed to a series of joint projects - including reunions of families separated by the Korean War - which have helped ease Cold War mistrust on the peninsula.

The North and South have remained divided since the end of the 1950-53 Korea War, which ended not in a peace treaty but an armistice.