<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/international/asia/11korea.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position=>
The New York Times April 11, 2005 North Korea Deals a Blow to Arms Talks By JOSEPH KAHN EIJING, April 10 - The North Korean government has disavowed a commitment to negotiate a step-by-step elimination of its nuclear weapons program with the Bush administration but may freeze the production of nuclear bombs under strict conditions, said an American specialist on North Korea who completed a visit there this weekend. The specialist, Selig S. Harrison of the Center for International Policy in Washington, said in an interview that he had been informed by several top-ranking North Korean leaders that the United States must pledge to respect the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity before any freeze could be discussed. The Bush administration has rejected conditions for resuming negotiations. "We have lost the opportunity to negotiate a step-by-step agreement that would lead to the eventual dismantling of their nuclear program," Mr. Harrison said in Beijing after returning from Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. "They are no longer willing to discuss that possibility." Mr. Harrison has been critical of the Bush administration for not negotiating directly with the North Koreans. He has had a rare high-level access to the North Korean leadership. On his most recent visit, he said he met Kim Yong Nam, North Korea's second-highest official and the nominal head of state; Kang Sok Ju and Kim Gye Gwan, senior Foreign Ministry officials who oversee talks on the nuclear program; and Gen. Ri Chan Bok, who is in charge of North Korean forces at the truce village of Panmunjom at the border. Although the North Koreans are willing to return to six-nation nuclear talks that have taken place under Chinese auspices, they are demanding that the United States apologize for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's comment during Congressional hearings that North Korea was an "outpost of tyranny," Mr. Harrison said. Some of the comments made to Mr. Harrison appear to echo a statement issued by North Korea on March 31, in which it declared itself a nuclear power and demanded that talks on reducing weapons on the Korean peninsula, including any weapons under control of American forces in South Korea, take place between the United States and North Korea on equal terms. Mr. Harrison said this constituted a "major policy shift" that had taken place since his last visit to Pyongyang a year ago, adding that he attributed the shift to hard-line military elements that have exerted more control in recent months. He quoted the North Korean officials as saying that they planned to unload plutonium fuel rods from their nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in coming weeks for the first time since 2002, giving them another 8,000 nuclear fuel rods. Mr. Harrison said this could provide enough nuclear fuel to double their existing arsenal of bombs, which some American estimates now place at six to eight. While that suggests an expansion of North Korea's nuclear program, Mr. Harrison said he was told that there were no plans to conduct a nuclear test. "They said they see no need to test and do not want to test because they are worried about the nuclear fallout, even of an underground test," he said. -- ----------------- R. A. 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