Use carrot and stick on North Korea: ElBaradei

Tokyo, Dec 1: The international community needs to offer incentives to North Korea rather than just apply pressure for it to return to six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programme, the head of the UN nuclear agency said today.

Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said that North Korea should accept inspections on its nuclear work by the IAEA as a first step towards resolving the Korean nuclear crisis.

''The international community needs to use both sticks and carrots,'' ElBaradei told reporters following a meeting with Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki.

''Sanctions alone does not, in my view, resolve security issues.

We need them to look into a package of incentives for North Korea to come back into negotiations.'' Pyongyang agreed to return to the negotiations, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, host China, Japan and Russia, after its first nuclear test on October. 9 triggered UN-backed sanctions.

The talks are expected to resume in mid-December, but no date has been set despite two days of discussions in Beijing this week among envoys from the United States, North Korea and host China.

In Beijing, North Korea demanded that UN sanctions be dropped and Washington free the North's overseas bank accounts as preconditions for ending its nuclear programme, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

On his way back to Washington, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said yesterday that North Korea had promised to study ideas proposed at the Beijing talks, adding that the ball was now in Pyongyang's court.

Hill urged North Korea to get out of the nuclear business and rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which North Korea quit in 2003 after it threw out IAEA inspectors the year before.

US officials have said they want North Korea, without condition, to stand by an agreement last year to abandon all nuclear weapons and nuclear programmes. In return, the other nations held out economic, political and security incentives.

REUTERS