NORTH KOREA: The United States and North Korea held rare bilateral discussions on the sidelines of thorny six-nation talks in Beijing yesterday aimed at convincing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Officials from six countries, including both Koreas, hosts China, the US, Japan and Russia, gathered for the first day of talks in the Chinese capital to resolve a 16-month stand-off over North Korea's nuclear programme.
While there was much outward cordiality, analysts say the mutual mistrust between Washington and Pyongyang means the talks are probably doomed to failure.
However, there were some positive signs that the talks may produce at least a framework for an agreement after South Korea said it had tabled "counter-measures", a phrase generally understood as a euphemism for economic aid, if the North promised to freeze its nuclear programme.
Seoul's head delegate, Mr Lee Soo-hyuck, said he presented the proposal during the opening session. "If it is such a freeze, we can push for counter-measures," Mr Lee said.
There has been widespread speculation that South Korea could give fuel aid to its northern neighbour in exchange for an end to the North's nuclear plan and signs it was dismantling it.
The six countries agreed after the first day of deliberations that they would hold more talks if the current negotiations failed - a sign that little concrete progress was likely this time around.
China's Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is chairing the talks, urged all parties to "respect one another and show flexibility" in his opening address, which was broadcast live on Chinese state television.
Washington wants North Korea, a Stalinist bastion included in President Bush's list of rogue states, to stop building nuclear weapons. Both countries are still technically at war 51 years since the end of the Korean War.
Pyongyang wants its regional security concerns addressed, as well as economic aid to boost its almost bankrupt economy.
North Korea's chief negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, said his country would "maintain our principles" and demanded compensation for shutting down the nuclear programme. The North also wants a non-aggression pact and to be taken off a US list of governments that sponsor terrorism.
Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said the US had no plans to invade North Korea.
"The United States seeks complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all North Korea's nuclear programmes, both plutonium and uranium," Mr Kelly said.
North Korea denies it has a uranium enrichment programme.
The US reckons North Korea has at least one or two nuclear bombs made from plutonium.
In a separate development in Athens, South and North Korea have agreed to march together at the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics and said they would begin talks about fielding a unified team for the 2008 games in Beijing.
Millions face hunger in North Korea
Millions of malnourished North Koreans face severe hunger this year unless the international community steps up funding of aid operations, the World Food Programme said yesterday.
The UN agency said its stocks had reached an unprecedented low this month when it could feed only 85,000 people out of 6.5 million at serious risk.
"A recent round of severe food aid shortages have greatly aggravated an already severe humanitarian crisis in North Korea," the agency said. Funding and food provided following an appeal early in the month - as well as a loan by the North Korean government of cereals from its strategic stocks - meant supplies to the worst hit could be resumed for the next six weeks.
The government's own distribution system, mainly serving the 70 per cent of the people living in urban areas out of a total population of 23 million, provided an average of 300 grams of cereals a day.