Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=12/25/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=KOREAS / U-S (S-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-297783

BYLINE=JENNIFER O'NEIL

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: South Korea says President Bush will send an envoy to Seoul next month to consult on the growing crisis over North Korea's nuclear program. V-O-A's Jennifer O'Neil reports from our Asia News Center.

TEXT: A spokesman for South Korea's president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, said the United States will send a top envoy -- most likely Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly -- to Seoul in January. The spokesman says a South Korean envoy will be dispatched to Washington in return.

This exchange is part of a growing diplomatic effort to deal with North Korea's nuclear program.

The communist state has begun to remove U-N monitoring equipment and seals from a reactor at its frozen nuclear facilities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is gravely concerned that North Korea could use spent nuclear fuel rods to extract plutonium that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

North Korea says it needs to reactivate its nuclear plant for fuel, since the United State and its allies suspended oil shipments.

The fuel deliveries were halted after the United States said in October that it confronted North Korea with evidence that it was enriching uranium, in violation of a 1994 nuclear non-proliferation accord. (signed)

NEB/HK/JO/TW