North Korea shows flexibility on nuclear talks-Seoul

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

North Korea's chief envoy to the six-country nuclear 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 Sept. 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 six-way 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 are likely to resume early next month and could make real progress.

Song declined to elaborate on the proposal made to North Korea, though he indicated that Pyongyang may 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.

''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,'' Song said, when asked about North Korea's position on the financial crackdown.

The last round of the talks in December ended with no progress after negotiations resumed following more than a year of deadlock over the US squeeze on Pyongyang's external financing.

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

Despite the apparent easing of tension, North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper railed in a commentary today 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. ''In order to cope with such situation the Korean people have boosted the self-reliant defence capability in every way under the banner of (the military-first policy) Songun.'' REUTERS PB KP1050