Talks set on reactor in North

North Korea has declared its readiness to resume suspended working-level talks with an international consortium building nuclear reactors in the North, a move that was seen as giving impetus to the stalled relations between Pyeongyang and Washington.

Pyeongyang and officials of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization have held regular negotiations over various issues arising from the consortium's nuclear project, from the training of North Korean engineers to the supply of components. The North, however, abruptly called off the talks in February.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman said its ambassador to the United Nations and officials from the U.S. State Department and White House met in New York on March 13 and 20, North Korea's Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

In the meetings, the U.S. government urged North Korea to renew its talks with the reactor consortium, the state agency said, and gave assurances of its intention to provide light-water nuclear reactors to the North. The 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework promised two reactors in return for the North's agreement to freeze its nuclear development program.

As a result of New York contacts, Pyeongyang decided to come back to the negotiation table with the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, the spokesman said.

Washington's efforts to resume government contact with Pyeongyang continued this week. U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday that the U.S. government would spend $95 million this year to supply crude oil to the North, as promised in the 1994 agreement, until the new nuclear reactors are completed in the North.

"We continue to await a response from North Korea to our longstanding proposal to meet with them on broader issues of concern," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Thursday.

by Lee Young-jong