U.S. Nuclear Envoy Puts Gentle Pressure On North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States urged North Korea on Thursday to rethink its position and give a “complete and correct” accounting of its nuclear weapons programs before a new conservative South Korean president takes office in late February, perhaps with more sticks than carrots for the North.

“I really think it has to do with transparency,” Christopher R. Hill, Washington’s main nuclear envoy, said in South Korea. “We can’t have a situation where we pretend programs didn’t exist when we both know that they existed,” he added.

North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline for disabling its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and, according to Washington, for providing a full list of its nuclear activities, including weapons, facilities and fissile material. Last week, North Korea announced that there was nothing further to declare because it had already explained enough.

The North’s position created uncertainty about the Bush administration’s efforts to get North Korea to abandon all its nuclear assets. On Thursday, Mr. Hill said Washington was willing to give North Korea more time to provide a fuller accounting of whether it has a uranium enrichment program and of what it has produced with its acknowledged plutonium program.

He played down the latest setback, saying that in the United States’ dealings with North Korea, missed deadlines are not rare.

“Obviously, we had a bit of a bump in the road over the declaration, but I think everyone agrees that we need a declaration that’s complete and correct,” Mr. Hill said. “That’s more important in fact than a timely declaration.”

He said it would be “very desirable” if North Korea finished disabling the Yongbyon facilities and declared its nuclear programs before the government of President-elect Lee Myung-bak of South Korea was sworn in on Feb. 25.

Mr. Hill made his comments after meeting Mr. Lee in Seoul. Mr. Lee favors engaging North Korea, but, unlike the departing president, Roh Moo-hyun, he emphasizes that North Korea should cooperate in efforts to end its nuclear weapons program before getting meaningful aid from South Korea and economic exchanges with it.

After a series of talks with the United States and other regional powers, North Korea agreed last year to the nuclear disablement and declaration, in return for one million tons of fuel. It did shut down the Yongbyon complex, where work to disable it has continued past the Dec. 31 deadline.

The United States hopes to get North Korea to move beyond the disablement and to dismantle all its nuclear facilities by the end of this year, although there is doubt that North Korea will ever give up its nuclear weapons.

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