US ready for talks with Pyongyang

Washington and its allies want to avert a conflict

The US State Department says Washington is ready to discuss with North Korea, but will make no further concessions to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme.

The United States will not provide quid pro quos to North Korea to live up to its existing obligations

State Department

The announcement came after two days of talks in Washington between US, South Korean and Japanese diplomats, aimed at forging a common stance towards North Korea.

Pyongyang sparked a crisis with Washington in October, when it admitted to pursuing a programme to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The Washington talks came as North Koreans on Tuesday said they would consider any attempts to damage their economic interests as a declaration of war.

"The United States is willing to talk to North Korea about how it will meet its obligations to the international community," the State Department said in a statement.

"However," the statement went on, "the US delegation stressed that the United States will not provide quid pro quos to North Korea to live up to its existing obligations."

'Blackmail'

The three allies reaffirmed the need for dialogue with North Korea - but also urged Pyongyang to eliminate all its nuclear weapons programs.

CRISIS CHRONOLOGY

16 Oct: N Korea acknowledges secret nuclear programme, US says

14 Nov: Oil shipments to N Korea halted

22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon nuclear plant

26 Dec: UN says 1,000 fuel rods have been moved to the plant

31 Dec: UN nuclear inspectors leave North Korea

6 Jan: IAEA demands inspectors be readmitted and secret weapons programme halted

Timeline of tensions

Analysts suspect North Korea's moves are part of a hardline bargaining ploy to persuade the US to negotiate.

But the US has so far refused to respond publicly, saying that doing so would be tantamount to giving in to nuclear blackmail.

US President George W Bush on Tuesday reaffirmed that he wanted to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

"We have no aggressive intent, no argument with the North Korean people," he said during a speech in Chicago.

"We're interested in peace on the Korean Peninsula."

South Korea wants to resolve matters with a package offering advantages for both the US and North Korea.

Little has been said publicly about what the deal might contain, but it is reported to include a resumption of US fuel shipments to Pyongyang once the Stalinist state verifiably halted work on nuclear programmes.

It is also reported that the US will be asked to give a written guarantee of North Korea's security, which would fall short of the non-aggression pact North Korea has demanded.

There is pressure on North Korea to meet concerns over its nuclear programme soon, after it expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week. IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei repeated on Tuesday that North Korea had "a matter of weeks" to readmit the inspectors to its nuclear facilities before the agency would report the regime to the UN Security Council.