North Korea says willing to take early steps

BEIJING, Feb 8 (Reuters) North Korea is willing to take initial steps towards ending its nuclear arms programme, South Korean officials said after six-party talks opened today, hinting at rare progress in talks which have ended in stalemate for years.

The negotiations on closing Pyongyang's weapons programme resumed with hopes raised for agreement on first steps after milestone talks between US and North Korean envoys in Berlin last month.

South Korea's envoy to the negotiations, Chun Yung-woo, told reporters that China may draw up and circulate a draft agreement as early as today.

''We have confirmed that there is a consensus among the countries that there must be an agreement on the early steps on implementing the September. 19 joint statement at this round (of negotiations),'' he said.

He was referring to the North's agreement with the five other countries in September 2005, so far not implemented, to stop its nuclear weapons programme in return for economic and security concessions.

Japan's chief delegate demanded that North Korea freeze a nuclear reactor as the first step towards nuclear disarmament, in line with expectations after the preliminary discussions, and said that any deal needed to be implemented fast.

''Regarding denuclearisation, North Korea needs to halt and seal its operations of the nuclear facilities in Yonbyong and accept verification and monitoring by the IAEA,'' Japan's chief delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, told Thursday's meeting, according to a draft of his speech released by Japan's Foreign Ministry.

''The initial-stage steps must be implemented in a relatively short period of time,'' he added.

He later told reporters North Korea had stated its own position on how to denuclearise the country, but he did not elaborate.

''As of today, there is no specific conclusion,'' he said.

Negotiators from the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China gathered in a secluded compound in western Beijing amid reports North Korea may be persuaded to suspend the facilities that helped it stage its first nuclear test last year.

''So far the denuclearisation of North Korea has been mostly talk versus talk. Now it's time to enter the stage of actions versus actions,'' Chun said earlier.

US negotiator Christopher Hill said the session would grapple with nudging into action the 2005 statement.

''I don't want to tell you what aspects of the September '05 agreement we're trying to get implemented, except to say that when we do get a set of actions -- if we do -- it will be widely seen as a very solid, positive step toward implementation,'' Hill told reporters.

North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-kwan, who held the unprecedented meetings with Hill in Berlin, told China's official Xinhua news agency before leaving Pyongyang he did not ''expect too much'' from the talks and their fate lay in US hands.

''We are prepared to discuss the initial steps, but the judgment (for the talks) should be based on whether the United States will come forward and abandon its hostile policy against us and co-exist peacefully,'' Kim said on arrival in Beijing.

Participants have dismissed hopes of an immediate settlement of the long-burning stand-off in this session of the stop-start talks, first convened in the Chinese capital in August 2003.

Distrust between North Korea and others in the talks deepened after Pyongyang's nuclear test last October, which prompted UN sanctions backed even by China, the North's long-time supporter.

REUTERS DDC PM1916