South Korea Outlines Plan for the North’s Disarmament, Aid

South Korea offered a three-step plan to give new aid to North Korea if it gives up its ambitions to have nuclear weapons, as six countries Wednesday kicked off the latest round of arms talks on a constructive note.

There was no immediate response from Pyongyang, which two years ago acknowledged that it had restarted its nuclear program. The last multiparty session ended in the summer without an agreement.

North Korea’s chief delegate, Kim Gye Gwan, sounded optimistic at the opening ceremonies. “We will, in accordance with our government’s consistent position, insist on principles and exercise flexibility and cooperate well,” Kim said. “I am confident that such political will would serve as a basis for narrowing down the existing differences of position and opinions between the DPRK [North Korea] and the United States and break the current impasse.”

Despite statements of cooperation, tensions remained high as representatives of the two Koreas, United States, Japan, Russia and host China sat down again at the hexagonal table at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House.

Differences between the United States and North Korea remain the key stumbling block. The Bush administration maintains that Pyongyang is hiding a plutonium-based weapons program as well as a uranium-based one. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, denies it.

Washington has insisted on an all-or-nothing approach to shut down Pyongyang’s facilities, arguing that anything less would seem like agreeing to nuclear blackmail. Assistant U.S. Secretary of State James A. Kelly repeated that stance Wednesday during his opening remarks.

“The United States seeks complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all North Korea’s nuclear programs, both plutonium- and uranium-based,” Kelly said.

U.S. officials met informally Wednesday with their North Korean counterparts after a four-hour conference among the six parties. There was no immediate comment on the discussions.

Analysts here said Washington might have softened its stance. By allowing South Korea to present its plan and play the nice guy, it won’t appear that the U.S. has agreed to Pyongyang’s demands.

According to the proposal outlined by Seoul, the dismantling would come in three stages. First the North must pledge to abandon its nuclear program. Then it must freeze its weapons facilities in return for compensation from partner countries. Finally, it must eliminate its nuclear programs to win security assurances from Washington.

“Through this round of talks, we need to send a clear message. The message is that a nuclear-free Korean peninsula is not in the distant future,” Lee Soo Hyuck, head of South Korea’s delegation, said earlier.

Kelly addressed Pyongyang’s main security concern -- a demand for a nonaggression treaty with the Bush administration, which has labeled North Korea as part of “an axis of evil,” along with Iran and Iraq.

“President Bush has also made clear that the United States has no intention of invading or attacking the DPRK,” Kelly said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “This remains the policy of the United States.”

North Koreans may not want to hand a diplomatic victory to the Bush administration during an election year, but they have also been showing signs that they are ready to deal.

This month, diplomats from the North met with members of the International Atomic Energy Agency and suggested that the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency could be invited back to the country pending the outcome of the current talks.

In December, the impoverished North offered to freeze its arms programs in exchange for economic aid. The U.S. rejected the proposal unless it came with a commitment to disarm.

As the host country, China has a lot riding on the success or at least continuation of the talks, which it worked to broker and considers an instrument to bolster its international standing.

“We come to the talks to extend our common ground rather than to highlight our differences,” said Wang Yi, China’s vice foreign minister. “We come here to solve rather than to worsen the problem.”