NKorea shows flexibility on nuclear talks--Seoul

SEOUL, Jan 24 (Reuters) North Korea appears more open to US and South Korean incentives to scrap its nuclear weapons programme, Seoul said today, providing further hope for progress in talks on the communist state's atomic ambitions.

North Korea's chief envoy to the six-country negotiations hinted yesterday there could be a change to his country's demand for an end to a US crackdown on its finances before returning to the talks.

''South Korea and the United States have put forward, through close consultations, an aggressive proposal for the implementation of the September 19 joint statement,'' South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters.

''North Korea has shown a flexible position on it,'' he said, referring to an agreement in principle reached at the talks in September 2005 to end the North's nuclear programmes in return for aid and security guarantees.

South Korean and US envoys have said the talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States were likely to resume early next month and could make real progress.

Song declined to elaborate on the proposal made to North Korea, although he indicated that Pyongyang might be looking favourably at the initial incentives offered in exchange for it to start scrapping its weapons.

North Korea has agreed to freeze its nuclear reactor and accept inspectors in return for energy aid, according to South Korean news reports, but officials have declined to confirm the details of any proposal made to the North.

Song, who begins a three-day visit to China tomorrow, was asked about Pyongyang's position on the financial crackdown. ''I want to stress that there is a consensus coming together that we need to overcome that issue and need to agree on the initial steps for the September 19 joint statement,'' he said.

Japan's chief nuclear envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to meet the Chinese host of the six-way talks, ahead of Beijing's expected announcement of a date for the next session.

The last round in December ended with no progress after negotiations resumed following more than a year of deadlock over the US financial squeeze.

Two months earlier, North Korea had conducted its first nuclear test in defiance of international warnings.

Despite the apparent easing of tension, North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper railed in a commentary on Wednesday against what it said were US efforts to modernise its nuclear weapons.

''The US imperialists are keen to provoke a nuclear war in Korea,'' the official KCNA news agency quoted the communist party paper as saying.

REUTERS SSC VV1512