US envoy says North Korea should act on delayed nuclear declaration within days

The Associated Press ,  Seoul   |  Thu, 04/03/2008 11:10 AM  |  World

The United States called on North Korea to quickly resolve an impasse in nuclear disarmament talks, while South Korea urged the communist nation to halt its provocations that have stoked
tension.

The increased pressure from Washington and Seoul came Wednesday after the North's angry actions in response to tougher policies by South Korea's new conservative government.

In the past week North Korea has expelled South Korean officials from a jointly-run industrial zone, test-fired missiles, threatened to reduce the South to "ashes" and called South Korea's new president a traitor.

Washington also has said the North failed to completely declare its nuclear programs by a deadline at the end of 2007.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in he was waiting for a North Korean move "in the next few days" to end the impasse over the declaration.

"We are very concerned about time," he said Wednesday in Seoul.

"Believe me, we're at a difficult period, but we're also at a period where I think we're going to be able to make progress in the near future," Hill said later at a dinner reception.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier reported that Hill might meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, in Jakarta on Friday. Indonesia is the next stop on Hill's Asian tour.

Hill said he had no "immediate plans" to meet Kim, but he said the North's negotiator "knows where I am."

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there were no plans for Hill to meet with North Korean officials during his Asia trip.

Hill said North Korea's recent provocations were "directed at trying to upset the mood" in the South.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Defense Ministry faxed a message to the North's military asking it to stop trying to rile its neighbor.

North Korea's moves came after the South's top military officer said last week that his country could strike suspected North Korean nuclear targets if there were signs of an imminent atomic
attack. (**)

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