Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=01/06/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR - L

NUMBER=2-311556

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: North Korea has repeated an offer to end the crisis over its nuclear weapons development, calling it "a bold gesture". As V-O-A's Amy Bickers reports from Tokyo, the proposal comes as an unofficial U-S delegation heads to North Korea.

TEXT: North Korea on Tuesday offered to freeze its nuclear programs in exchange for U-S aid and other concessions - including to be removed from Washington's list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

The proposal was carried by the official K-C-N-A news agency, which described the offer as a "bold concession."

North Korea made the same offer in December. The United States rejected the proposal, saying the communist North must return to the negotiating table without preconditions and end its nuclear programs before any concessions will be considered.

A first round of talks was held in August in Beijing, but ended inconclusively. Diplomats from China, Japan, the United States, Russia, and South Korea have been trying to arrange a second round of talks for months without success.

Despite the ongoing deadlock over the nuclear dispute, an unofficial American delegation left Beijing for North Korea Tuesday.

Pyongyang invited the scholars and congressional aides on a five-day tour of the isolated Stalinist state. They hope to visit the Yongbyon complex - North Korea's key nuclear facility.

Jack Pritchard, a delegate and former State Department official, says the trip is a private rather than government-sanctioned initiative.

/// PRITCHARD ACT ///

I do not have any expectations. We do not know what we are going to be able to see or do until we get there. They will go back and report to their different organizations as appropriate.

/// END ACT ///

The dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons erupted in October 2002, when the United States said North Korean officials admitted they had a development program underway, in defiance of international accords.

Since then, Pyongyang has expelled United Nations monitors and withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It also claims to have reprocessed enough nuclear material for several

atomic weapons.

If given access, the unofficial American delegation will be the first outside group to see North Korea's nuclear facilities in a year. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/AB/JJ